Our colleagues in Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand have asked us to mention an offshore compliance initiative being promoted in Australia. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has announced ‘Project DO IT’, described as a ‘last chance’ for taxpayers to disclose offshore income before enhanced information sharing between tax jurisdictions starts to close the net.

The features of the Australian arrangement will sound familiar to Irish chartered accountants – reduced penalties, a look-back period limited to the last four assessment years, and an undertaking by the ATO not to proceed with criminal prosecutions. The ATO is also offering concessions for taxpayers who wind up their offshore structures. The deadline for disclosures is 19 December 2014 after which the ATO will proceed with aggressive audit and prosecution activity.