Project Wickenby

What do we do?

Project Wickenby is an integral part of the Australian Government's fight against tax evasion, avoidance and crime. In particular, Project Wickenby addresses the abusive use of secrecy havens by investigating offshore schemes that involve false deductions and concealed income and gains.

The Project Wickenby cross-agency task force, established in 2006, consists of eight federal agencies. This cross-agency approach continues to be necessary because Australia is increasingly engaging in the global economy and the size and scale of international tax avoidance and evasion is extensive and growing.

The key objectives of the task force are to:

• reduce international tax evasion in the Australian taxation system
• enhance strategies and capabilities of Australian and international agencies to collectively detect, deter, deal with, and disrupt international tax evasion and money laundering
• improve community confidence in Australia's regulatory systems
• reform administrative practice, policy and legislation.

With their combined legal and administrative efforts and the use of sophisticated technology, the task force has made significant progress in identifying a range of illegal offshore schemes.

Three key features of the schemes already under investigation are:

• concealing income or gains, or creating false or fraudulent tax deductions
• concealing assets offshore to avoid obligations in Australia
• returning funds to Australian taxpayers in a deceitful manner, including as laundered money.

The task force has already uncovered a substantial number of people participating in these schemes, with cases involving varying degrees of dishonesty and deception.

Sections within What do we do?

• Who do we investigate?
• Funding the fight