Packer beats £35m Aussie tax bill
KERRY PACKER, Australia's richest man with a fortune of more than £3.5bn, has won a 14-year battle with the taxman, allowing him to avoid a A$84m (£35m) bill.
The full bench of the Federal Court dismissed an appeal by the Australian Tax Office against an earlier court ruling that gave Packer's privately-held Consolidated Press Holdings Group time to shift tax losses to subsidiaries and avoid the bill.
The case dates back to Packer's failed £11bn takeover bid for the industrial and tobacco giant BAT Industries, which he launched in 1989 in association with James Goldsmith and Jacob, now Lord, Rothschild.
At the time, subsidiary Consolidated Press Finance made a A$300m loan to Consolidated Press.
When the bid was called off 10 months later, Consolidated Press had racked up A$126m in interest and claimed a tax reduction of A$84m.
