ATO seizes money from Tinkler-owned business

The Australian Taxation Office has reportedly seized money from one of Nathan Tinkler’s private companies in relation to tax on royalty payments from the Middlemount mine in Queensland.

Court documents have revealed on November 26, 2012, the ATO issued a point in time garnishee notice on Oceltip’s account after it did not respond to a notice from the Tax Office which was issued a month earlier, as reported in The Australian Financial Review.

The documents were revealed as part of the case against the mining magnate in the Queensland Supreme Court where his former business partner Matthew Higgins is suing him over allegations Tinkler diverted $1.12 million worth of royalties he was owed into the Tinkler family trust. Tinkler denies these allegations.

SmartCompany contacted a spokesperson for Tinkler, but he declined to comment.

Earlier this month SmartCompany reported Tinkler was questioned by lawyers from the mining company Blackwood Corporation in the New South Wales Supreme Court after he failed to pay $28 million in a deal to acquire a third of the company.

Tinkler was questioned about the deal between his company Mulsanne Resources and Blackwood and said he had agreed to the deal, but had “no definitive plan” on how to fund the purchase.

Mulsanne Resources has now been placed in liquidation.

Tinkler last year also failed to obtain the funding for a $5.25 billion takeover bid for Whitehaven Coal and in Novemeber, he lost an attempt to spill the Whitehaven board.

Tinkler moved to Singapore in June last year to try and dodge the media limelight, but the move did little to stop the reporting of his financial situation.