"The IRD had spent an "unimaginable" amount of taxpayer money pursuing Russell, who it has been in litigation with for more than 30 years, Hunt said." What a lame way to twist the wrong doing and try and turn the taxpayer against the IRD. I blame Russell for this. He knew it was wrong and everything from that point on was caused by him. Make an example if they have to, I don't care for him.
Have a look at the movie "we're here to help", based on property developer David Henderson's battle with IRD before/after they bankrupted him. Pretty one sided movie, but shows what they can be like if they want to push a cause. Ofcourse, I'd assume they got no satisfaction from the 2nd bankruptcy.....
Unless the man involved in this IRD case has significant assets that aren't being reported, then you do have to question the rationale of the hardline that the IRD are taking
If you're the right kind of bloody-minded kiwi joker, I reckon once your initial fine of five million has blown out to 20 or 50 million, and you're approaching 80 years old, you be tempted to just keep stringing the bastards along to see what sort of high-score you can get before you pop your clogs. There's absolutely no chance IRD will get back even the initial five mill, they know it, he knows it, everyone knows it, but the wheels keep on grinding along.
In my view the guy is a thief with the resources to string the system along. How this is the IRDs fault is a bit beyond me.
If it was a beneficiary owing $5000 due to fraud - which is effectively if not actually what he was convicted of - there would be baying for blood. Because he's a white collar criminal it appears that some people think this is the IRDs fault.
Don't get me wrong, everyone including me hates the IRD because they take my money but if they didn't follow through then it would be a much greater crime.
Russell's original tax bill was around $5m, but penalties and compound interest over 25 years inflated it to $138m at the time of his High Court case, and in excess of $177m when he went to the Court of Appeal.
That's how.
wow .. 5 mil -> nearly 400 mil! let me guess - 100 mil is lawyer fees?
Russell's original tax bill was around $5m, but penalties and compound interest over 25 years inflated it to $138m at the time of his High Court case, and in excess of $177m when he went to the Court of Appeal.
That's how.
wow .. 5 mil -> nearly 400 mil! let me guess - 100 mil is lawyer fees?
the amount is Penalties and Interest as prescribed by legislation
Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.
He's offering to pay $1000 a week for the rest of his life. Is that a real amount he can come up with, or just another way of delaying things and working the system. This guy got convicted for fraud, and for @30 years has effectively not been punished. His intention is to stretch this out till he dies. I say bankrupt take what you can and him and lock him up for a duration that suits the remainder of the original bill.
I understand, and usually agree with, the need for the IRD to be fairly aggressive, but often the penalties are WAY out of proportion.
Handle9: In my view the guy is a thief with the resources to string the system along. How this is the IRDs fault is a bit beyond me.
If it was a beneficiary owing $5000 due to fraud - which is effectively if not actually what he was convicted of - there would be baying for blood. Because he's a white collar criminal it appears that some people think this is the IRDs fault.
Don't get me wrong, everyone including me hates the IRD because they take my money but if they didn't follow through then it would be a much greater crime.
Who said the ird is at fault? I didn't see any comment blaming the IRD.
Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly
to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.
ID Verified
Trusted
