The Australian Taxation Office has been caught using slabs of info copied from the Wikipedia in an official document detailing changes to how personal equity firms treat asset sales. Parts of the ATO's "draft taxation determination" were lifted word for word from the user-generated encyclopedia, which some circles consider not to be trustworthy for first research thanks to the fact that almost anybody can edit articles.
The move has left the ATO red-faced after a posting on The WSJ's web site brought world attention to the Wiki-cribbing. The ATO has replied by announcing it used Wikipedia as it gives a "commonly understood" outline of non-public equity agreements. The draft doggedness was engineered to stop tax income from dripping overseas by finding personal equity firms must pay tax in Australia on earnings they receive from asset sales. It was issued after the ATO revealed it was looking for $678 million in taxes after private equity firm TPG sold Myer. The WSJ spotted 2 sections of the document that were picked up word to word.
One described how personal equity asset sales work and another detailed the 3 factors influencing personal equity investment returns. Revealing the copy-pasting was straightforward as the ATO referenced the site in the document: "See usually Wikipedia: Non-public Equity". "The Tax Office perspectives on the tax treatment of personal equity arrangements aren't based on Wikipedia," a taxation officer speaker expounded in an emailed statement.
"The rationalization of the perspectives in the draft doggedness alludes to Wikipedia as it gives an ordinarily accepted and in public available outlines of non-public equity agreements that may be accessed by all readers."
