Australian tax dodgers beware: Operation Wickenby goes after Dirty Dancing

The ATO’s Operation Wickenby has begun investigating the ‘hit’ musical Dirty Dancing for Australian tax return evasion.

Yes, for those of you who haven’t heard, that eternal love story about 17 year old Baby getting swept off her feet (literally and then figuratively) by a dancing camp counselor from the Catskills has been turned into a musical extravaganza of the stage. With the Mamma Mia! set reaching preservation age, it was high time for another tasteless, nostalgia-drenched musical for the over-fifties and the cohorts of youngsters who think “Livin’ on a Prayer” the height of humanity’s musical achievements.

Rivaled in terms of pure ‘80s schlock only by Ghost the Musical, which won’t make its way down under until August 2013, the stage reincarnation of the Dirty classic has done quite well for itself – better than it should have, in fact, if allegations that it used a complex international structure to funnel earnings offshore prove to be true.

At the heart of the controversy is a pair of feuding brothers, Kevin Jacobsen and Col Joye, who are responsible for promoting this theatrical masterpiece and subsequently dodging the taxes on its earnings.

Originally of the ‘60s band the Joy Boys, their song “Oh Yeah Uh Her” became the first rock and roll single to reach number one in Australia. Like so many other middling rock heartthrobs of the early sixties, they were swept aside by four fab lads from Liverpool who just wanted to hold our hand.

After a brief comeback with the cloying 1973 hit “Heaven Is My Woman’s Love,” Joye and his brother became music entrepreneurs who brought other artists and acts into existence. Among their many gifts to the world of music are the Bee Gees, Andy Gibb, and now Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage.

Allegedly the brothers shuttled a large percentage of Dirty’s profits to overseas territories without repatriating them to Australia. In technical tax parlance, this is known as a “sham.” Potentially the two of them could owe the ATO a tax bill in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Operation Wickenby – which you’d be forgiven for thinking something out of a Jane Austen novel instead of a government task force – is responsible for going after people who dodge taxes through offshore havens.

Since the project began in 2006, 26 people have been convicted of indictable offences, 69 for summary offences, and one extradited. All told, Wickenby has netted Australia $600 million, and uncovered $1.3 billion in liabilities.

The world of international taxes can seem intimidating, especially with agents from Operation Wickenby prowling about. But if you lodge your return with AustralianTax, you don’t have to worry about being charged with tax evasion. Whether you’re a backpacker looking for a tax refund or an expat looking to lodge nonresident tax, We’ll make sure you pay everything you have to – but not a dollar more.

Photo via Andy Roberts on Flickr.