Another Interesting Observation!!!

This Chaudary case has opened up a new area for the CIR - henceforth any Tom Dick and Harry can have a payment paid into an offshore account, have a letter endorsed by the payer saying that it is a “gift” and the CIR cannot asses it for an income tax - Chaudary’s case has set down the precedent - thats why the RBF just received so many calls over the last twenty four hours.

and if you open up an offshore account and get all the money paid in to that account - thats not in breach of the Exchange Control Act !

interesting times ahead - guys will exploit this loophole to the hilt - claim instability in the country as being the basis for keeping huge payments offshore and put them down as gifts.

this is what happens when the CIR stops short of examining that letter from Haryana, tracking down the transaction (series of transactions) that led to the collection of the funds, identify the source transaction for those funds and where they came from - that would then have allowed the CIR to properly characterise those funds as either income or gift.

we now have a new loophole in the tax regime.

oh boy……

real jack
an Inquiry, a 15 page report plus all its appendices all in 4 days ?
03/11/08 10:53:26

they showed clips of the report on Fiji TV last night. something is not right here.

these guys came in on Friday evening and started their inquiry. they spoke to various people. they would have looked through the tax files - and looking through tax files is not a simple process - tax audit files are some of the most technically challenging and complex types of files to look through because its a mixture for forsenic accounting and tax law - thats why it takes time to go through audit files and thats why its always best practice to have the auditor available to explain actions taken - its not an open and shut process.

coming fresh to an audit file - even if you are experienced and know what you are looking for - you need time to adjust to the rythem and the tempo of the file - to put it together - to familarise yourself with the file. every tax audit file has its own tempo and rythem and information. adjusting to a tax audit file doesn’t happen in a day or two days - the morass of information, correspodances and technical details involved is huge.

they would have sat down to discuss the issues and then they would have worked through the mass of facts involved - before coming to conclusions.

the report that was shown on the TV last evening is a 15 page report together with appendices (which probably makes it somewhere around 30 to 50 pages long), well set out, and complete - somehow i don’t believe that thing was done in the four days they were here - usually these things are done first in draft format, then they go through it and do ammendments and corrections, then its tabled before the committee for the final run through before its endorsed.

these guys did their inquiry between Friday and Sunday and had the report finished and complete by Monday evening.

if they had a Secretariat, where was it based ? who supplied the printers, photocopiers, computers ? who did the typing ? who supplied the A4 papers ?

was it being done/ already completed in Minter Ellisons Brisbane office and simply emailed over on pdf format ?

something is not right here.

this report looks like it was prepared well before hand, and either someone came here with it on a USB and just printed it out or it was done offshore and emailed over on PDF format - it was not prepared on the weekend.
the revelation that the Minter Ellison guy was involved in Momi, hired to advise Chaudary, only makes this thing more suspcious.

all this only points towards this Inquiry being a sham.

but more than that we have to look at the Minter Ellison connection to this thing - i.e the 2006 coup d’etat. Minter Ellison is not new to Fiji, in fact after the 1987 coup d’etat they had their guys working with the regime (and later the SVT government) and were moving to take over all the governments legal work - this was at the time of Attorney General Bulewa and Solicitor General Mataitoga. that initiative was only stopped as a result of preassure from the old guys in the Law Society at the time.

Minter Ellison have always been lurking in the background throughout past instability in this country. they are not new.

the question that needs to be asked is : who is behind Minter Ellison ? they are already involved with the advices that have brought the Momi project to a standstill, and Momi is probably going to go up on foreclosure very soon through the FDB - the question is simple - who is going to get the benefit of any foreclosure over Momi ? are Minter Ellison or any of their clients going to get in on the bid ? are Minter Ellison setting up for other projects in the country eg the gold mines, timber and other major projects ?

what is Minter Ellisons connection to this thing that makes them so prepared to stick their neck out and be hired by an illegalregime (Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s words) become a party to a sham Inquiry all to cover up for Chaudary ?

this is more than just about the legal fees on an Inquiry - these guys wouldn’t fly 3000 kms to Fiji for a $150k weekend just to stick their necks out and tarnish their reputation - they get that kind of dough in Aussie and much more from their clients without putting at risk or sacrificing their credibility, integrity and reputation.

this is about a lot more. a lot lot more.