Rupert Murdoch and his corporate criminal tax fiddle
By Bob Rafto
Rupert Murdoch and his corporate criminal tax fiddle
A loan arrangement by Newscorp to Foxtel may be lawful under a tax law but it could be illegal under the criminal law.
Newscorp loaned Foxtel $900M with an interest rate of 12%.
A report by Michael West describes Foxtel was spitting cash (highly profitable) at the time of the loan and there was no requirement for the loan.
The interest repayments from Foxtel to News resulted in Foxtel reducing their tax to the ATO to zero, Foxtel generated $6 Billion in revenue over 3 years and paid no tax.
If Foxtel had no requirement for the loan it can be argued that Newscorp, Foxtel and their tax lawyers and accountants conspired to draw up a loan agreement for the sole purpose to defraud the ATO of taxable income.
The criminal code states:
Obtaining a gain
(1) A person commits an offence if:
(a) the person conspires with another person with the intention of dishonestly obtaining a gain from a third person; and
(b) the third person is a Commonwealth entity.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 10 years.
If the loan is only a book entry it cannot be a legal transaction because no transaction has taken place. Foxtel is paying interest on funds they didn’t receive and a false claim is made to the ATO to deduct the interest costs.
(The above paragraph reinforces section 135.4).
I believe there is reasonable and sufficient evidence for the AFP to prosecute News and Foxtel, along with their partner Telstra, but will they?
Another question is: who with authority can lodge a complaint to the AFP?
Or will the AFP roll over like they have with Mal Brough, James Ashby, Helicopter Bishop and now Michaella Cash?
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Return to home pageIf they could’nt gei him on the News Of The World scandal they most certaintly will not get him on this!
Great article and about time these criminals were stopped in their tracks. Unfortunately all the evidence is that the AFP is entirely at the beck and call of the Govt. Which is yet another worry for Australia.
John O’Callaghan,
It has us stumped why your comments continually get caught for moderation. They shouldn’t, but they do.
Please continue to bear with us until we can find the cause of it.
It’d be easy to amass a fortune when you can commit crimes with impunity. With complicit governments.
It is truly remarkable that to the 1% this is seen to be within the rules and that authorities look away as if it meets expectations..
I understand it is not illegal to run a business at a loss..
Most investors/businesses expect a return on their money.. I just can’t fathom why a business that is losing money donates to political parties? Like Bob Day ,News Corp.. surely its to their own detriment unless there is an implied return ..implied policy sale…implied personal benefit ?..
This appears to be another example of the rich and their lawyers manipulating the system and avoiding tax. It is reprehensible that this may have occurred and yet the LNP GIVES 30 MILLION TO Foxtel. This GRUB Murdoch and News Corp are an example of a business devoid of ethics and yet through their media outlets have such an influence on the politics of this country. Thank goodness for independent news media networks like THE AIMN who are prepared to air these potential issues. I agree that this is likely to go nowhere because the LNP is under Murdoch control and the AFP continues to prove itself as a puppet of the LNP by not finalising any investigation with a public interest component. It is a blight that this LNP continues to have any support within the Australian electorate given the damage that they have done to our once great democracy. The only way Australia has to move forward is to GET RID OF THIS LOT.
Nothing Ripemoff Rupert does surprises me anymore. Will the LNP do anything? Not an effing thing apart from making a few meaningless noises then follow it all up with the deafening silence of complicity.
Murdoch, with the willing and continued blind eye of the coalition, has corrupted the entire public service, the judiciary, law enforcement so he that gets away with things that us ordinary citizens can only watch with disgust and helplessness. When we have a PM who brazenly admits, indeed smirks, that he has assets in the Caymans, what hope is there for any kind of brakes on the rapacious swindles that Murdoch perpetrates with such impunity. As previously expressed, we all look forward to the day the crinkled scrotum disappears into his hole in the ground.
The AFP is hopelessly compromised. I don’t have any faith in the AFP. It is captive to economic conservatism, most of which is openly corrupt, as practiced by banking, finance, accounting and Murdoch.
Murdock must have a lot of dirt on a lot of people. When he’s in the ground there could be a huge sigh of
relief around the world. Maybe a stainless steel coffin so the earth is not polluted.
I’d love to see Murdoch charged and convicted for something of this calibre – then declared an unfit person to hold any media licences in this country
I believe there is reasonable and sufficient evidence for the AFP to prosecute News and Foxtel, along with their partner Telstra, but will they? The answer is almost definitely “NO” these corporations have undue influence with this Turnbull tory govt and it would be a shock, not a surprise to see any of them prosecuted. If they were nobody would go to prison and they would receive a token fine, which would amount to petty cash for these multi-billion dollar thieves.
The way these foreign-owned corporations are able to dodge paying their responsible amount of income tax has disturbed me for many years. The ALP must commit itself to ensure a much greater contribution to our nation from all of these corporations, especially the foreign-owned ones. Our aging infrastructure is in desperate need of upgrading in many areas, and without government revenue, we are in danger of becoming a third world country. We desperately need a pro-people federal government to remove some of the existing taxation deductions for these parasitic organizations to ensure they pay a ‘fair’ amount of income tax.
With an electronic transactions tax we could easily find $80mil for a media inquiry.?
“Or will the AFP roll over like they have with Mal Brough, James Ashby, Helicopter Bishop and now Michaella Cash?”
Let’s not forget that paragon of virtue, Kathy Jackson.
It is an up-lifing thing to see the Murdoch media fighting for a special course of Western Civilisation to be established in the ANU, if not all universities. After all, the Murdoch media is the epitome of all that is great and wonderful in Western literature, scientific thinking, economics and political philosophy. It constitutes a highly acclaimed course of study in itself. To see it ridiculed and disparaged, accused of wrong-doing, is surely a travesty which should be referred to the Human Rights Commission and to the highest court in the land – or the world! No doubt the Murdoch media will bring out its Big Guns in its defence, highly nuanced and poetic in its expression.
Yes, here they are, the Big Guns lining up again as they have for days now. The Big Guns love wars; they have fought them before: The Cultural War. The Literacy War, The Climate Change War, The Terrorist War….They have vast stores of ammunition.
A sample. Janet Albrechtsen seizes on the example of the sacking of Dr Ridd from the James Cook University, Albrechtsen claims it is an example of censoring of criticism. The JCU says it is not the case. Who is right? But once the accusation is thrown, the Murdoch media always remembers it according to their claim.
Another example. The Ramsay Western Civilisation course and the Australian University. The ANU pulls out of the deal. It claims the demands of the Ramsay advocates challenge the autonomy of the University. Besides it covers much of Western Civilisation in other courses. Albrechtsen claims it is a matter of ‘craven corporatism’ As if the Murdoch media is not ‘craven corporatism’.
And then of course there is a whole battery of Murdoch Big Guns firing away at everything in sight.
It would be funny if it were not just another case of interference from a foreign corporate manager,.American, of course They have already had courses on Western Civilisation, such as the Chicago University ‘Great Books of the Western World” from the 1950s. They even had a ‘revised’ version and in latter years started to include Eastern writings in order to acknowledge that there is more to the world than just the West.
Just how much of the literature, philosophy, art, music. architecture, science, religion etc of Western Civilisation would be covered in a three year course? Has anyone tried to read the works of writers such as Augustine, Aristotle, Euclid, Copernicus, Spinoza, Locke, Hegel, Marx, etc etc? Let alone all the other arts and sciences etc etc.
It is laughable, alright. A lifetime is not enough,. Even a kind of Readers’ Digest skim version would be inadequate.
Anyway, it is clear the Big Guns of the Murdoch media pay only lip-service to to the canon.
These scams involving Murdoch are blatant, costly and ubiquitous.
He is a grotesque mega-parasite who may be remembered as one of those who brought civilisation as we know it back to the dark ages, if the destruction wrought by he and his kind is not somehow ameliorated very soon.
If the legislation regarding foreign influence in our elections goes through, could we get an amendment to put the “dirty digger” at the top of the list.
Jamesss; no, the Murdoch should be buried in a paper coffin, so at last he can give a tiny bit of what he stole back to our suffering earth. We all go to compost in the end.