Bikie widow’s tax fight

THE widow of murdered bikie Shane Ross will have to wait to find out whether his estate should pay hefty penalties for his tax evasion and avoidance.

Alexandra Ross is fighting the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in the Federal Court on behalf of both the estate and herself over a bill that could hit $1m.

The dispute arises out of a covert ATO audit of the couple that concluded that ex-Comanchero Mr Ross failed to disclose assessable income totalling $843,989, resulting in a tax shortfall of $353,042 between 2009 and 2014, but excluding 2011.

The ATO audit found Mrs Ross failed to disclose $466,080 in assessable income resulting in a tax shortfall of $192,420 for the 2013 and 2014 financial years. The couple were also each slapped with penalties at a rate of 75 per cent of the tax shortfall amounts.

Mrs Ross argues the penalty amount should be reduced due to her husband’s death.

She told the court that in 2013 and 2014 she was on Centrelink benefits and doing a small amount of work as a bookkeeper for a pool company and claimed $21,491 of her income in 2013 was from a winning bet on a State of Origin rugby league game.

She said she later made cash from dog breeding and put this money in a discretionary trust set up by her husband.

The court heard Mr Ross bought his wife a 2009 Mercedes Benz ML63 worth between $171,500 and $195,077 in 2013 for the bargain price of $32,500.

Mr Ross testified the car was bought in cash with $32,500 from “money he had lying about”. In evidence given before his death in 2019, Mr Ross argued that more than $110,000 of his income was from gambling wins, and other payments were loans from his mates that he had not been asked to repay, or payment for selling luxury cars he had bought and on-sold or from cash for providing contract labour to concreters under his business Rossy Enterprises in 2012.

Mr Ross also told the tribunal that he said he and his wife received $45,000 in cash gifts from the 100 guests at their engagement party held at the five star Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney. There was also evidence that he exchanged $20,000 in cash at a currency exchange at an international airport and he sold cars worth $132,500 in 2014. The ATO argued there was no explanation as to how Mr Ross might have spent more than $738,000 in 2014 on a claimed income of just over $174,000.

Both the ATO and Mrs Ross took the case to the Federal Court after they filed an appeal in a bid to overturn parts of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in relation to the tax bill, handed down in May last year.

In the Federal Court yesterday, Justice Roger Derrington sent the case back to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a re-hearing.

Mr Ross was shot dead during a clandestine meeting at a Tallebudgera park in October 2019. His body was found under a bridge with a gunshot wound to his head, just days after his friend Cameron Martin died in a single-vehicle crash. Three men, allegedly former business associates, have been charged over Mr Ross’ murder.

Shortly before his death, Mr Ross was convicted for his role in a luxury car fraud syndicate.

No date has been set for the new hearing.