Paul Hogan Calls IRS Officials “Gentlemen”

A couple of weeks after Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan was detained in Australia over a multimillion-dollar tax bill, he has been granted permission to leave the country. The 70-year-old actor has been embroiled in a tax controversy with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) for five years. He recently returned to Oz to attend his mother’s funeral. Once in the country, he was detained as a flight risk.

Hogan was eventually allowed to return home to Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife, Linda Kozlowski, and their son, Chance. If you’re wondering why you know his wife’s name, she starred in the “Crocodile Dundee” movies with Hogan.
Back in the US, Hogan blasted the ATO. However, he had nothing but kind words for the IRS, saying, “I have come to this great tax haven, the USA, where the IRS are gentlemen compared to our lot.”

Wow. Chew on that for a bit.

Hogan has certainly had the opportunity to deal with the IRS. The IRS formerly assisted the ATO with its investigation into Hogan’s finances.

The ATO insists that Hogan is a resident of Australia for the tax years 1987 to 2005. Hogan claims that he was a US resident from 1995 to 2002 and paid taxes here (he returned to Australia in 2002 where he lived to 2005). However, the ATO believes that Hogan didn’t pay taxes in either country for some of that time.

Hogan’s tax battles will eventually be settled in court though Hogan is definitely hoping that public opinion will be in his favor. He believes that the ATO only allowed him to return to LA because of the international press that his case has received.

His wife has referred to the whole matter as “sick.” As for Hogan, he infamously summed up his feelings about the case in 2008 when he told the ATO, “Come and get me, you miserable bastards.”

Kelly Phillips Erb

Kelly Phillips Erb is a tax attorney, tax writer, and podcaster.

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