Tax reform teal Allegra Spender’s $280m tax-free gain

Wentworth independent MP Allegra Spender is a director of a private company that didn’t pay tax on a $280m payment it received in 2019, says the ATO.

Wentworth MP Allegra Spender. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

Wentworth independent MP ­Allegra Spender is a corporate ­director of a private Australian company that did not pay tax on a $280m payment it received in 2019, according to annual transparency reports published by the Australian Taxation Office.

A spokesman for Ms Spender said the $280m payment was a one-off dividend payment from “related companies” that had already been taxed at the full corporate rate of 30 per cent.

“Allegra is an experienced company director,” he said. “She is a director of Waeriver, Tirano and Arodene investment holding companies. She was appointed a director of Waeriver in 2005.

“There was a one-off dividend from related companies to Waeriver of $280m in FY2019 – $84m of tax, at the full 30 per cent corporate tax rate, had already been paid by related companies on that income in prior years.”

The payment was made to a private company called Waeriver Pty Ltd, of which Ms Spender is a director alongside her sister and Australian fashion designer Bianca and half-brother Johan Alexander Schuman.

Ms Spender, who campaigned on a platform of integrity in politics, said the investments were passive and vowed to declare any conflicts of interest with them going forward.

“These are passive investment companies with no operations and managed at arm’s length,” she  said.

“Given this arm’s length relationship and passive investments, I don’t expect any conflicts of interest but if any arise, I will declare them and manage them to ensure that they do not affect my ability to represent my electorate.”

Company reports show Waeriver is headquartered at the Carla Zampatti Building in Sydney.

Under the tax transparency laws brought in by the former Labor government, the ATO is required to produce an annual report on certain corporate tax entities. The report reveals tax paid by public and foreign corporations with a total income of $100m or more, as well as Australian-owned resident private corporations with a total income of $200m or more.

 

Ms Spender’s numerous company directorships were recently revealed in her statement of registrable interests, which requires all newly elected members to declare financial assets.

She is a director of several companies including ­Arodene, AS Family Co, Estiva Holdings, Tirano, Sondrio, Zampatti, and many other companies associated with her late mother, Carla Zampatti.

The positions are alongside investments in publicly listed companies including Scentre – the group behind Westfield shopping centres – Telstra and Sydney-based funds manager Platinum Asset Management.

Ms Spender has also declared several real estate properties, including her home in the eastern Sydney waterfront suburb of Darling Point, two holiday homes in Great Mackerel Beach in NSW and an estate asset in Woollahra.

She has called for an overhaul to the corporate taxation system, arguing that company tax rates in Australia were uncompetitive.

In her first speech to parliament, she said the tax system was inhibiting productivity and neither major party had tried meaningful action to reform it.

On Wednesday, a spokes­person for Ms Spender said: ­“Allegra has called for tax reform to be on the agenda to ensure that we have a tax system that can pay for the services that we need, and that is efficient, simple and drives productivity and employment.”