Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion may face $60k tax bill after tell-all interview

THE money they received for their tell-all interview is being placed in a trust fund for their son. But experts say Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion could lose thousands in tax.

BARNABY Joyce and Vikki Campion face a mega tax bill because the $150,000 they received from Seven will be considered personal income — despite it going into a trust for their baby — and the precedent comes from the Great Train Robbery.

The couple will likely have to pay $60,000-plus in tax, experts say.

“They can’t just deflect it to the trust,” said the Tax Institute’s senior tax counsel Bob Deutsch.

“More than likely it will be treated as taxable income for Mr Joyce and Ms Campion,” said Tax and Super Australia senior tax specialist Dave Ebdon.

Vikki Campion and Barnaby Joyce with baby Sebastian.

“As the payment was for a significant amount, a service was provided — that is, an interview was given — and that the interviewees were motivated to provide the interview by the receipt of the payment, these conditions tick all the ATO’s boxes for this being personal income,” said Mr Ebdon, who is a member of the Australian Taxation Office’s Tax Practitioner Stewardship Group.

“In my view this will be taxable income for either Vikki, Barnaby or both depending on the terms of the contract with Seven — probably taxable to both 50:50,” said H&R Block tax communications director Mark Chapman.

“It was Barnaby and Vikki that earned the income, not the baby, so the tax falls squarely on them, not on the baby or the baby’s trust,” said Mr Chapman, who is also a stewardship group member.

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The couple will likely have to pay $60,000-plus in tax, experts say.

Mr Ebdon said this view was supported by the 1971 case of Brent vs the Federal Commissioner of Taxation where Charmian Powell, the wife of great train robber Ronald Biggs, was held to have derived assessable income when she received payment for a tell-all interview.

Professor Deutsch also said that case was the most relevant precedent.

There was no obligation on the Seven Network to withhold tax, he said. It would be up to the recipients to pay the ATO.

On the basis Seven’s chequebook journalism increased Mr Joyce’s assessable income from $300,000 to $375,000, he would face an additional tax hit of nearly $34,000.

Barnaby Joyce brings his newborn son into Parliament.

Assuming Ms Campion’s income increased from $100,000 to $175,000, she would be liable for another $28,000 of tax.

That’s a total of nearly $62,000.

If they take that out of the $150,000 Seven paid them, leaving $88,000 or so for baby Sebastian’s trust fund.

While Mr Joyce told Seven “nothing’s going to me, nothing’s going to Vikki. This is for a young bloke called Sebastian Joyce”, that doesn’t mean they didn’t carve off enough solely to cover their tax liability.

The interview on Seven didn’t make the arrangements clear and the network wouldn’t comment yesterday.

News Corp Australia sought clarification from Mr Joyce’s office.

A spokesman said: “We all do our own tax. I suppose it’s a matter for him. We can’t comment on that as his office … and he’s on medical leave.”

An ATO spokesman said it was legally prevented from commenting on specific cases but generally, “money paid for the provision of a service is ordinary income of the recipient entity and should be included in their assessable income”.

Originally published as Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion may face $60k tax bill after tell-all interview