The Criminal Property Confiscation Act allows for the confiscation of unexplained wealth. If you are perceived to be living beyond your means, you can be required to justify that you have attained your wealth legally or legitimately.

Recent clients V* and T* failed to properly disclose income to the Australian Taxation Office and because they failed to properly disclose their assets and property, they received government assistance that they weren’t entitled to.

Using their bank statements, the WA Police assessed their income and expenditure for the relevant period. V and T had a total income of about $5.1M and total expenditure of about $5M.

The value of property effectively controlled by V, including cash, vehicles and real estate, totals more than $3.5M. But the value that has been withdrawn from various bank accounts is roughly $5M. And his declared taxable income for the period was $200K.

While the assets under T’s effective control total roughly $3.5M and the value of what has been used in that time, or drawn from various bank accounts is also roughly $5M. With a declared taxable income for the period of roughly $200K, the WA Police suspected that their total wealth exceeded their lawfully acquired wealth and proceeded to freeze their assets.

*names altered for confidentiality.