The Australian Tax Office (ATO) was the greatest beneficiary of information gathered by Australia’s financial intelligence unit, Austrac, last year, according to new figures.
Austrac’s annual report for 2007/8, tabled in parliament on Wednesday, showed that 27,730 notifications were sent to the ATO in the past year, while the Federal Police received a relatively paltry 3,072 and the customs department 1,468.
The report revealed that the agency’s collaborations with the ATO helped the tax office identify AUD36m (USD24m) in previously undisclosed income through the ATO’s offshore voluntary disclosure initiative, and contributed to ATO assessments of more than AUD76.6m.
AUSTRAC received approximately 69,000 financial transaction reports per day from regulated entities during the 2007-08 period. This is an increase of more than 14% on the previous financial year.
“The 2007-08 reform was a major regulatory achievement for the agency and represented an important step in our continued efforts to create an environment hostile to money laundering and terrorism financing,” said Austrac Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Neil Jensen.
To help businesses understand their new obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act), Austrac contacted more than 19,000 potential reporting entities, delivered presentations to an estimated 6,500 industry attendees, and launched Austrac Online which allowed more than 10,000 entities to enrol with the agency, Jensen explained.
He added that, internationally, Austrac continued its role as one of the world leaders in financial intelligence, providing technical support and workshop programs to FIUs in South-East Asia and the Pacific region, and expanding its network of international information exchange to include 53 counterpart agencies around the world.
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