Sydney accountant, Filomina Kyriacou, is being pursued by the Australian Taxation Office over unpaid tax and penalties of $2.4 million.
The director of Sydney accounting firm Wentworth Williams, Ms Kyriacou has been linked to the tax fraud accused George Alex.
The tax debt resulted in the Tax Practitioners Board banning Ms Kyriacou and her firm from acting as a tax agent, a move the 54-year-old is attempting to have overturned in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
According to her tax records, which were aired in the proceedings, Ms Kyriacou is accused of understating her taxable income in 2017-18.
In 2017, Ms Kyriacou “returned taxable income” of $38,247 but, after an ATO audit, her earnings were found to be more than $1.6 million, resulting in a tax shortfall of $753,405.04, court documents state.
The following year, the documents stated Ms Kyriacou declared an income of $57,785 when it was actually assessed by the ATO to be almost $1.3 million. This resulted in a tax shortfall of more than $572,000.
The ATO probe also led to 26 of Ms Kyriacou’s “clients” being audited, which uncovered that they had $18 million in various liabilities, the tribunal heard.
Tribunal documents showed part or all of the amount “related to six companies” but the ATO did not particularise those allegations for the Tax Practitioners Board.
According to The Sunday Telegraph, business searches found records of six companies, of which Ms Kyriacou was a previous director, that are now in liquidation, owing about $10 million in unpaid tax.
It is not known if these are the six companies referred to in the Tribunal.
Ms Kyriacou applied to the tribunal earlier this year to have her five-year ban overturned.
The tribunal is yet to hand down its decision and in May granted Ms Kyriacou a temporary “stay” from being banned while it was deliberating on its final order.
A spokeswoman from the Tribunal said the stay was in place until August 9 “or until further order by the tribunal.”
The tribunal heard Ms Kyriacou is suffering from bone marrow cancer “which it might be inferred has impacted upon her ability to respond in a timely and effective way to the ATO and the (tax) Board.”
Ms Kyriacou has also been linked to construction identity George Alex, who is accused of leading a tax fraud ring that stole $17 million.
RELATED: Construction figure George Alex arrested over money laundering, tax evasion.
Ms Kyriacou has not been charged over the tax fraud syndicate and there is no suggestion she has any involvement. However, Ms Kyriacou did feature as a witness who gave evidence in a 2014 Federal Court case relating to Alex’s financial affairs after he was declared bankrupt.
However, Justice Bernard Murphy ruled that Ms Kyriacou was an unreliable witness and said some of her evidence was “implausible.”
Mr Kyriacou’s case will return to the tribunal on November 13. The Sunday Telegraph attempted to contact her for comment.
