[LINK] Australian Tax Office's Wikipedia bungle

Bernard Robertson-Dunn brd at iimetro.com.au
Fri Dec 18 15:04:54 AEDT 2009


Australian Tax Office's Wikipedia bungle
The Australian
Malcolm Farr
From: The Daily Telegraph
December 18, 2009 1:01AM
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/australian-tax-offices-wikipedia-bungle/story-e6frgakx-1225811713665

THE Australian Tax Office faces international embarrassment after it 
used the online site Wikipedia as a source for a ruling affecting the 
fate of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Wikipedia has been criticised for the quality of its information, but 
the ATO trusted it enough to use it for a definition of the business 
term "private equity".

The ATO has acknowledged it referred to the online information source 
for the ruling, but denied it was a primary source.

A draft determination made on Wednesday said: "A key component of 
private equity as an asset for institutional investors is that assets 
are typically realised after some period of time, which will vary 
depending on the investment strategy."

Wikipedia says: "A key component of private equity as an asset class for 
institutional investors is that investments are typically realized after 
some period of time, which will vary depending on the investment strategy."

The Wall Street Journal noted the lift and said: "At least they took the 
time to Briticize it by changing Z's to S's."

Another passage on three factors related to private equity used terms 
similar to those cited by Wikipedia. There was no direct attribution, 
but the ATO ruling did advise: "See generally Wikipedia: Private Equity."

The private equity definition was used in the December 16 draft taxation 
determination headed: "Income tax: Can a private equity entity make an 
income gain from the disposal of the target assets it has acquired?"

The ATO tightened tax rules by declaring that profits from the sale of 
assets by private equity firms could in some cases be dealt with as 
taxable income.

This affected a bid by an investment business to move offshore some $1.5 
billion gained from the float of Myers Holdings.

-- 
 
Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au




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