Tax

Mylan’s Australia unit is appealing decisions by the tax office to refuse deductions on interest paid under loans taken out by the pharmaceutical giant to help fund the $1.2 billion acquisition of generic drug maker Alphapharm almost 15 years ago.

Singapore telecommunications giant SingTel cannot claim over $894 million in tax deductible “transfer pricing benefits” for interest paid by a cross-border subsidiary on a loan for the $14.2 billion acquisition of Optus, the Federal Court has ruled.

Accounting giant Deloitte has lost its bid to throw out a former client’s lawsuit alleging negligence and fraud over a failed interposition under tax law that occurred more than 16 years ago.

The High Court has granted the ATO’s bid to impose a worldwide freezing order against Chinese property developer Changran Huang, saying the court’s power to freeze assets did not depend on whether there was a realistic possibility of enforcing a judgment in a foreign jurisdiction.

A judge has extended asset freezing orders until next year in a $109.5 million case brought by the tax office against Gold Coast property developer James Raptis and his companies.

Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is facing claims of professional negligence by insolvent tertiary education provider Cornerstone for allegedly assisting the company’s former director in overstating the company’s revenue and unlawfully extinguishing his debt.

Eight companies in the Dubai-based Emirates Group have lost a court bid to recoup more than $10.5 million paid to Australian staff during the COVID-19 pandemic on the mistaken belief that the money would be repaid as part of the federal government’s JobKeeper subsidy scheme.

The High Court has found a 15 per cent ‘backpacker tax’ imposed on holders of Australian working holiday visas violates a double taxation agreement between Australia and the UK.

iSignthis CEO John Karantzis claims the ATO misled the court when it sought a freezing order over his assets in a dispute over an alleged $10.7 million tax debt, saying the tax office failed to give the judge “material” information.

Embattled Sydney accountant Vanda Gould has lost his defamation case against the Commissioner of Taxation, with a court finding Chris Jordan’s defamatory comments constituted a “robust”, but proportional, counter-attack to Gould’s public disparagement of the Australian Tax Office.