Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo has Australian assets frozen over US$96 million tax bill
- Huang was last year stripped of his Australian residency and barred from returning to the country
- He has been at the centre of a series of political interference concerns, having donated millions to Australia’s two main political parties
Huang Xiangmo, the Chinese billionaire political donor who was last year stripped of his Australian residency and barred from returning to the country, has now reportedly has his Australian assets frozen and is being pursued by the country’s tax office for A$140 million (US$96 million).
He has also come under scrutiny for alleged links to the United Front Work Department – a Chinese Communist Party-linked body accused of neutralising opposition and buying political influence around the world.
On Tuesday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported the Australian Tax Office (ATO) this week moved to freeze Huang’s assets over unpaid taxes and penalties.
Huang has lived in Hong Kong with his wife, Jiefang, since his Australian residency was cancelled last year. The couple’s assets include a mansion worth A$13 million in the upscale Sydney suburb of Mosman.
In Federal Court, the ATO’s lawyers said Huang had been under audit since 2017 and had “grossly understated his income” between 2013 and 2015 and made “false or misleading statements” in income tax returns, the Herald reported.
The court heard Huang had received a A$140 million tax bill earlier this month, stemming mostly from the sale of a mansion in Hong Kong, creating a capital gains tax liability.