RUPERT MURDOCH SHORTCHANGED HIS MOTHER OF $273 MILLION
March 6th 2008 01:32
Fairfax newspapers in Australia report that Rupert Murdoch “short-changed” his now 99-year-old mother, Elisabeth, to the tune of A$273 million, and in his attempts to make it up to her left her with a tax bill that has grown to as much as $70 million.”Fairfax said lawyers for Dame Elisabeth yesterday appeared in the Federal Court to appeal against the assessment ordering her to pay tax on an $85 million payout from the Murdoch family company, Cruden Investments, in November 1994.
Asked for an opinion on the legal and tax implications of the payout before it was paid, John Dyson Heydon, QC - now a High Court judge, but then a barrister - said "it may appear that Mr Murdoch is in a position of undue influence over his elderly mother", the court was told yesterday.
Fairfax said, “In 1994, while buying out his sisters from the family shareholding in News Corp, Mr Murdoch realised his mother could have earned $273 million more from the four trusts in the 11 years from 1983 to 1994, had they been invested in higher yielding stocks.
“Counsel for the Tax Office, Anthony Slater, QC, yesterday likened the situation to Mr Murdoch's failure to pay his mother ‘a big enough slice of the pie’ because the trust had invested its funds in the company he controlled. To compensate her for breaking the trust law by investing in News Corp shares - known for paying paltry dividends - he agreed to pay her $85 million.”
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