Good day,
My name is Michael. I am originally from Germany, Europe. I moved to Australia with my wife and kids in 1994. Some years ago I received a money gift from my father, who now died over 4 years back. Since 2004 the Australian Taxation Office is giving me a hard time, and a very hard time since 2006. They investigate in my person under the Wickenby Project. For me it is difficult today to satisfy their hunger for information, as I cannot ask my dad anymore to help me to show that it was his money he gave to me.
As a person, who was never convicted in any way, I feel harassed by the ATO.
Today I want to make people aware about my experience. If your intensions are to immigrate and to invest in this beautiful country, give it s serious thought. The way the ATO can act strongly reminds me to a police state or a communist regime. Private information are giving to third parties, information are gathered about non Australian citizens, living overseas and so on. I wonder whether that is legal under international law. That is to give you an idea, what I am going through. There is no transparency and I have encountered an almost unhonest approach the way they are doing their job.
As they were unable to convict me in any way with their first inquiry, they soon started a second one. And now we are already in the middle of the third one. I can wait for the fourth one. You might get the impression that people working for the ATO get only paid if they can show that the person they are investigating in is somehow cheating.
Mind you, Australia is still my favorite country with some beautiful places and people, but it is not all perfect and to some, it might be better to take your money and invest it elsewhere. That, of course, is my humble opinion only.
Anyone with similar experiences or am I just a very unlucky person?
cheers Michael

Being an international operation, probably probes into your late dad's affairs. Questions you should ask yourself whether that many should have been taxed in Germany, whether your dad was on a pension and the German Gov. after death of a person takes the pension money back out of any savings left. (as used to apply in Holland)
I got a 69cent leftover from a great aunt's estate in the early seventies because of this. Maybe the German authorities are chasing a payback. Ask more questions why you are investigated under the "Freedom of Information act"

Unfortunately, the tax laws in this country are a shambles, designed to provide a lifetime of lucrative employment for lawyers.

Apart from the "where did you get that cash?" enquiries, they simply love to apply some of the more illogical rules, to the most vicious extent possible.

Example: chap builds successful business in Australia. As part of his expansion plans into Asia, he partners with a listed US company, exchanging shares in his local business for shares quoted on NASDAQ. The ATO classifies this as capital gain, despite the fact that no cash has changed hands, only bits of paper, and wants 30% of the value of the shares.

No amount of logic had any effect. They threatened swingeing penalties that effectively trebled the "amount owed", they threatened court proceedings - complete with jail time - the lot.

Finally of course, our man gives in.

To raise the necessary cash, he sells a slab of shares in the US company - just ahead of a precipitous fall in their share price. Next thing he knows, the US company is in the middle of a class action suit, alleging that he sold with the help of insider knowledge.

As a result, he no longer has his company, nor any compensation for the business he had spent his life savings on, and which in its day had employed over fifty tax-paying Australians.

Thanks, ATO.

There is of course no point in protesting.

They simply mark your card.

Permanently.

Dear eftfnc, dear Pericles
This inquiry was started by the ATO, not the Germans. The ATO today believes that the money I was given by my dad was my own money hidden in an overseas account. And the real anger for the ATO as by their greedy nature is that money gifts are tax free in Australia. What strikes me most is that we brought money into Australia, and didn’t take it out of the country. What more could they ask for?
My family ties are overseas as with all new migrants and I cannot change that fact. It is also true that my dad gave me a money gift and that he died years ago.
I wasn’t born here and I possibly never become a real Aussie, but what I am asking for is to have a fair go. We definitely didn’t come to Australia to be treated by the ATO like this. Just imagine, down the line someone from my family decides to give me money again, that would be another situation the ATO proved itself as incapable of dealing with.
We went to the ATO headquarter in Perth, were I lodged a complaint. After a three hour long talk with a senior officer, I was assured that the taxation officers are all working in my best interest and that the ATO always sticks to the rules.
None of my concerns were accepted, as the ATO has obviously the right under this Wickenby Project to do whatever they want as long as they regard it as appropriate. To me that is wrong and bridging fundamental rights. As this is still an open case I don’t know how far I can involve the reader with details, but will be quite willing to let you know once this miserable drama is over.
To be continued...

...
I cannot afford a lawyer, who familiar with the Wickenby Project asks more then $700 per hour. So I will continue to fight the ATO myself. But my energy won’t last forever, and my believe in this system is shattered by the actions of the ATO, which I had to learn holds a very low Code of Honor.
Pericles, you are absolutely right, I also get the gut feeling that I will never have a fair chance, whatever I do. Once marked, then permanently.
So, at the end of day I will have to make a decision, which way to go for our future.
To me, any taxation office is like a partner to you, living wherever you live and doing business whatever that is. There must be a relation of trustworthiness and respect from both sides. It is important for me that I can rely and trust on a taxation office. But sadly not any more. This very important relationship has been severely damaged.
For our part I cannot see having done anything wrong, not in any context. Since we arrived in Australia we have the same accountant, as we don’t understand the system fully and don’t want to get things wrong.
This ongoing inquiry in my person has cost us a lot of time and money. I have a file, which already contains more then 100 pages, and for me from a non-English spoken background it takes time to reply in an appropriate way.
Once this third inquiry is over I am actually thinking about in sending the ATO an invoice for all those expenses, we had so far. I will allow them 14 days for payment, what do you think? My time, our accountant and my nerves are not for free. I know that would be a mouse fighting a tiger. But boy, I strongly believe that they should act within certain limits and to a certain ethnical standard, but that of course would require a certain level of class and a mindset, which can accept that not all human beings are crooks.
yours Michael

Best of luck m2catter, but from the sound of it you are in pretty much a no-win situation.

Sadly, you seem to have encountered some individuals in the public service sector who need to make a name for themselves.

Always a dangerous situation, but more so when they have been given extra powers - à la Wickenby - over their fellow human beings. They will use those powers to make your life as miserable as theirs. Which is a place you really don't want to be.

Chances are they will wear you down for another couple of years, at which point you will agree to a deal. Which goes on their records as a "win", and will be permanently on your file if they ever feel like a bit more sport.

But the time to really be on your guard is if you actualy win, and they are forced to back down. The vindictiveness of a junior official who has a failure on his record is immense. Expect the worst.