Visa called for tax scam help

The Australian Taxation Office has asked the world's biggest credit card companies to helpinvestigations into offshore tax havens after ATM transactions led the agency to tax avoidanceschemes.Credit card giant Visa yesterday said the ATO had approached the organisation for help ininvestigating 3600 potentially illegal uses of credit cards to bring money held offshore intoAustralia. The tax office has enlisted the help of credit card companies and banks to gathertransaction data for offshore-issued credit cards used here.Visa said it could not assist in investigations into offshore tax havens but was assisting crimeagencies on other types of money laundering. "We told the tax office that we'd love to help but wecan't because Visa doesn't appropriate transactions in Australia," a spokesman for the organisationsaid yesterday."Visa in Australia doesn't have accounts with members of the public. Accounts are held between banksand the public, we don't know cardholders." First requests from the tax office were made in 2001,but communication was ongoing, the spokesman said.Credit card transactions helped lead investigators working on Operation Wickenby to investors inoffshore tax havens who were repatriating the funds using local ATMs.Investigators in June raided 85 premises and later began reviewing hundreds more cases involvingpotential use of offshore havens for tax avoidance but are yet to lay charges.http://www.news.vu/en/business/bankingfinance/050819-visa-called-for-tax-scam-help.shtml