MURDOCH BEING SUED IN AUSTRALIA OVER TAX AVOIDANCE DEBT
November 8th 2008 03:17
The Australian Capital Territory has launched a bold legal assault against Rupert Murdoch, claiming his News Corporation owes the city more than $84 million in unpaid taxes and penalties.
The territory's taxman is suing News Corporation over what it describes in court documents as a ''tax avoidance scheme'' dating back four years.
The Government wants the ACT Supreme Court to force Murdoch's companies to pay $53 million in alleged unpaid transfer duties, $26 million in penalties and $5 million in unpaid interest.
The case comes the day after Murdoch flagged job cuts at his Australian and British newspaper operations due to a 30 percent fall in first-quarter profits.
In court documents, the Commissioner for ACT Revenue says the territory is owed duty on the transfer of nearly $9 billion worth of shares of a former territory-registered Murdoch company, Karlholt.
The shares were transferred from Karlholt to another Murdoch company, News Australia Holdings, as part of a restructuring of Murdoch’s empire in November 2004 and the companies allegedly failed to pay the multimillion-dollar duty bill on the transaction.
The case is due back in court later this month.
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