Gaming giant Crown has been slapped with a $20 million (US$13.8 million) fine for failing to pay its fair share of Victoria’s casino tax and trying to cover up the scheme.
The state’s royal commission into Crown’s Melbourne operations found the casino giant wrongly claimed tax deductions by including the costs of certain promotional activities as amounts paid out as winnings.
It also sought to deliberately conceal the nature of the deductions.
When first proposed, internal lawyers expressed concerns about the validity of the deductions but the company moved to gradually phase them in as part of a risk management strategy….