The bills for unpaid tax and associated penalties are “life-changing and unexpected”. That’s how Jonathan Ortner, one of the nation’s leading tax lawyers, describes the consequences of the Australian Taxation Office’s blitz on private wealth groups, with some families being pursued for large trust distribution tax bills and interest charges dating back decades.

Ortner says some groups are being hit with bills running into hundreds of millions of dollars, and that family trust trustees could be forced into insolvency and directors into bankruptcy should they not be able to meet their tax liabilities.