AUSTRALIA - Tax Office specialists claw back $1.7m in crackdown on Rebel bikie gxxg members' unexplained high earnings..

OFF THE WIRE
THEY are number-crunchers in suits taking on some 2000 men in leather branded "one of the country's highest-risk criminal threats".
But the "untouchables" running the Australian Taxation Office's first crackdown on an outlaw motorcycle club say they treat Rebels bikies like any other taxpayers.
That's even if the reputation of Australia's biggest bikie gxxg - said to deal in drugs, extortion, violence and money laundering - makes tax officials baulk at having their pictures published.
In an exclusive interview, assistant tax commissioner of serious non-compliance Phil Jones and his deputy John Fox revealed the ATO has clawed back $1.7 million from the Rebels.
That only recently eclipsed the $1.5 million that led to Australia's own Al Capone, Sydney vice king Abe Saffron, being jailed for conspiring to hide from the taxman 26 years ago.
There will be more to come from the Rebels, however, whose Hervey Bay president once sent a limousine to the Gold Coast to pick up cocaine to feed his 10-gram-a-day habit.
Last month one Rebel's yearly income was assessed at $1 million-plus.
The ATO continues to probe overseas business interests, Mr Jones said.
Mr Fox said the tax office saw increasing links between organised crime and traditional business to the point where "it's probably hard to distinguish at times".
Not that this made the Rebels operation "any more or less difficult than any other cases that we've done", Mr Jones said.
Most Rebels do not own businesses and lodge only simple tax returns online, he said.
"Some have a combination of trusts, companies, partnerships and super funds but they are in the minority," Mr Jones said.
Asked if he was surprised by the level of wealth uncovered, he replied: "Honestly, I don't think I can answer that question."
Data about unexplained wealth is shared with Queensland police, who usually cannot access it.
"Where there's a problem and we work across agencies, we can actually make a difference, whereas on our own it's very hard to make a difference," Mr Jones said.
Starting with a list of the 2000-odd Rebels members supplied by police and crime agencies as part of Task Force Attero, the ATO whittled that down to 117 bikies who faced compliance action.
"There was no one flagged that they've specifically said, 'Can you look at this person?'. We've applied our normal risk processes," Mr Jones said.
Communicating with the Rebels was no different to "how we would deal with the general public", he said.
The ATO has locked in payment arrangements with 34 bikies, with about the same number referred for prosecution for refusing to lodge any paperwork.
http://www.news.com.au/national-news/queensland/tax-office-specialists-claw-back-17m-in-crackdown-on-rebel-bikie-gang-members8217-unexplained-high-earnings/story-fnii5v6w-1226686412521