Morkel
International Captain
Contributor
- Jan 25, 2013
- 25,577
- 29,835
The tax office has caught far brighter people than these clowns. I tell you, their data matching stuff is amazing.
The "it's my uncle's" - that's called a fringe benefit (fringe benefits tax). Provision of rent or a rent reduction is an fb too.
And if the clubs are paying under the table, then their payroll tax isn't up to date.
BTW if tax records won't reveal rorts, why do the players always seem to buck about the NRL seeing them.
Player's and clubs audited (by an auditor, say KPMG) tax records must be delivered to NRL HQ each year. Club fails, out of the comp for the next year. Player fails, automatic deregistration for a year. Fail again, permanent bans.
As to their payroll tax, the payments wouldn't be done through payroll. A complicit 3rd party would issue bogus invoices for works done, the club would pay those, and then the 3rd party would then just transfer it to the player's manager. That's assuming the club is the one even paying the illegal amount - most times it will be straight from a club sponsor or interested party.
The ATO data matching stuff may be amazing, but it only catches people who have some component of the deals on legitimate books - like when the ATO were comparing luxury car registrations to declared incomes and finding people with $200,000 cars yet a taxable income of $40k. With deals like the clubs use, it's easy to make it look legit. The club sponsor simply pays $800k yet receives the equivalent of $1 million worth of sponsorship exposure. The extra $200k instead gets paid to a 3rd party (via legit-looking invoices for whatever service would seem legit) who then gets "billed" by the player's manager. Or in the case of the property deals, the sponsor simply "paid" the players by selling them properties at heavily discounted prices.
These deals are happening everywhere, not just in sport to get around cap rules. They're essentially tax avoidance tactics. Some people get caught, a lot don't. I can tell you 5 people right now, within my social circle or extended family, that use cash or dodgy invoicing to avoid paying tax. None have been caught.