Australian raids target 'sales suppression' software

Australian authorities conducted 35 raids across five states targeting businesses suspected of supplying or using tax avoidance software.

The raids were undertaken by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and coincided with similar actions in the UK and US.

ATO deputy commissioner John Ford provided examples of use of the software - also known as electronic sales suppression tools (ESSTs) - in the hospitality and retail industries.

“We’ve seen ESSTs appear in hardware connected to the point-of-sale systems, cloud-based software, and capability built directly into the software,” he said.

“[They] allow retailers to keep a separate set of books and launder the money in one transaction.

"They conceal and transfer this income anonymously, sometimes offshore.”

A point-of-sale system with ESST enabled “may permanently delete transactions, re-sequence transactions, reduce sales values, misrepresent transactions, and consequently, produce fake records,” he said.

“So what might happen is that the customer orders a $60 steak and a $100 bottle of wine and the ESS tool then puts it through the point-of-sale system as a $10 bowl of chips and a $4 bottle of soft drink.”

ATO investigators claimed to have in their possession “a significant cache of information”.

They said that investigations are ongoing and that no charges have been laid.