Tax crime investigations and results

Our tax and superannuation systems are two of Australia's most important community assets - they provide the revenue and wealth that support our stable and law-abiding society. Australia generally has a strong culture of voluntary compliance. However, a small number of people still try to cheat the community and gain an unfair advantage by committing fraud or deliberately avoiding their tax and super obligations. We work with the government and the community to protect out tax and superannuation systems by deterring, detecting and dealing with anyone who has intentionally not complied with the law.

We ensure those people who are disengaged from the tax system and resistant to complying with their obligations face serious consequences for their behaviour, including prosecution.

We take all forms of tax crime and intentional non-compliance seriously. The seriousness of these offences is also being recognised through the sentences being handed down in the courts, examples of which are in our prosecution media releases below.

The tables below provide a summary of prosecutions for:

• serious offences for fraud - which are investigated by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP)
• summary offences under the Tax Administration Act - which are generally prosecuted by the ATO and include failing to lodge a tax return and providing false and misleading information to the ATO.

Serious fraud*

	Cases	Convictions	Custodial sentences	Reparation orders ($m)	Court fines ($)
2012-13 **	29	29	23	0.85	0
2011-12	39	39	37	4.8	10,500
2010-11	62	60	53	17.0	7,500
2009-10	61	60	55	10.1	11,000
2008-09	60	56	42	11.2	14.3 million
2007-08	78	78	47	4.3	37,200
2006-07	108	106	64	3.8	63,000

* The serious fraud cases and convictions include Project Wickenby-related cases.

** Current to 31 January 2013.

Summary offences*

	Cases	Convictions	Dismissals and withdrawals	Fines ($m)
2012-13 **	1078	959	119	3.47
2011-12	2,147	1,961	185	7.41
2010-11	1,747	1,518	229	7.51
2009-10	2,792	2,517	275	10.35
2008-09	3,253	2,912	341	10.85
2007-08	2,510	2,207	303	7.1

* The summary offence cases do not include multiple cases/convictions for the same individuals or companies.

** Current to 31 January 2013.

Find out more about tax crime and how you can help to combat it. For information about the types of cases that we refer for prosecution, refer to our Corporate Management Practice Statement. Refer to our prosecutions media releases: Hundreds of tax cheats convicted No escape for tax cheats 1,500 prosecutions for tax and superannuation offences this financial year Tax Office technology catches tax cheats 478 Prosecutions: do the crime, face the consequences Over 600 individuals and companies prosecuted for offences totalling over $9.5 million Nearly 250 people convicted for tax offences in first three months of 2011 Worst tax offender hit with eight year jail sentence