Besieged property group Lendlease has been hit with an initial $112 million bill from the Australian Taxation Office, in a dispute that could ultimately cost it more than $300 million.
Lendlease is already under attack from activist investors over poor financial results, asset write-downs and its board of directors. Its Lendlease has since sold a further 50 per cent of the units to Aware Super. Lendlease retains the final 25 per cent stake. Its half-year financial report, Lendlease listed the Tax Office audit of its retirement village transactions from its 2018 tax return as a “contingent liability”.Superannuation fund Aware Super is set to become entangled in Lendlease’s dispute with the Tax Office over the portfolio of retirement village assets.
Lendlease chief executive Tony Lombardo was chief financial officer between 2011 and 2016 at the time of some of the transactions in question.