‘Crocodile Dundee’s’ Paul Hogan Settles Tax Case
"Crocodile Dundee" actor Paul Hogan has settled an eight-year long dispute against the Australian Tax Office allegedly worth millions of dollars, his lawyers said Tuesday.
Hogan, who was catapulted to stardom by the success of the 1986 film about the laconic, knife-wielding Aussie, said he was relieved the row was finally over.
"I am glad it is all behind me now, it will be nice not to have to talk about tax all the time," the 72-year-old told The Australian newspaper.
The tax office had reportedly been pursuing Hogan and his collaborator John Cornell for more than Aus$150 million ($156 million) in allegedly unpaid taxes, penalties and interest stretching back to the 1980s.
In a statement from Hogan's lawyer Andrew Robinson, the Australian actor said he and Cornell were pleased to advise that the matter had been settled after mediation before a former High Court judge.
"... they and their related entities have reached a settlement with the commissioner of taxation on a 'without admission' basis'," the statement said.
"The parties have agreed that the terms of the settlement are to be confidential, but as part of the settlement, the departure prohibition order issued against Mr Hogan has been revoked by the commissioner."
Hogan, the highest profile target of Operation Wickenby through which the tax office examined high wealth Australians, was banned from leaving his homeland in 2010 after returning Down Under for his mother's funeral.
He was later allowed to depart, but maintained that it was only the bad publicity the travel ban generated that allowed him to fly back to his home in the United States.
At the time, Hogan described the tax office's campaign against him and other high-profile Australians as "a huge disaster".
Source: Agence France Presse
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