Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch received a $882 million tax rebate from Australia’s government. The payment by a “foreign tax authority” was revealed in accounts published by his media group News Corporation. Australia’s Financial Review reports it has been the largest ever transaction recorded in Australia’s history.
Murdoch’s media empire was split in 2012. So, the tax refund had to be paid to Murdoch’s newly created entertainment business 21st Century Fox.
On February 17, The Guardian said that Murdoch has been trying to recover $2 billion since 1989. News Corp affirms that back in 1989 they lost $2 billion due to the soaring aussie’s exchange rate during complex shuffling of assets through local and overseas businesses. However, Financial Review stated that News Corp’s losses were actually fictitious as a large share of a subsidiary was registered in a tax haven. The payment to News Corp was estimated at $600 million, but the final figure swelled to $882 million after interest charges. The Federal Court of Appeal overruled the Australian Tax Office’s idea to challenge Murdoch’s claim in last July. Financial Review specified that such a tax rebate had been one of the biggest single factors in the 6 billion dollar federal budget blowout since August until December 2013.
21st Century Fox “inherited” TV assets and several show business divisions from News Corp. The media empire News Corp had to deal with drastic restructuring after a range of notorious revelations in 2011-2012 when journalists from the media group were caught red-handed while bribing the police and wiretapping phones. Interestingly, Rupert Murdoch is Australian by birth. He founded his first media companies in Australia. Then he relocated to the U.S.
