Long, long before Crocodile Dundee, Paul Hogan was a household name in Australia.
That huge movie was his International breakthrough.
Prior to that, Hogan had a long running TV variety program, ‘The Paul Hogan Show’.
He started his working life as a painter on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and after appearing on a humourous clip on a National TV Current Affairs program, he was given a one off variety special, and the rest is history. He played numerous characters and in concert with his friend John Cornell, the pair turned this one off special into a long running variety show that lasted 11 years and more than 60 separate programs during that time, winning numerous TV awards here in Australia. He also starred in some local movies and also some TV mini series, such was his broad popularity. He was also in some long running TV advertisements, mainly for Cigarettes before the ban on their advertising came into effect, and also for some ads for beer as well. Such was his popularity, that he was in fact a household name.
Then came the original Crocodile Dundee movie which resulted in Worldwide acclaim, and spawned further spin off movies.
Hogan also appeared in TV advertisements for the Australian Tourism Industry, the ‘shrimp on the barbie’ ads that also added to his overseas popularity, ads that brought a smile to Australian faces, as here in Australia, we refer to shrimps as Prawns.
Hogan has had a long and varied career, and now in his aging years can rest safe in the knowledge that his career has been a long, and also quite successful one.
Now, Hogan is involved in a dispute with the Australian Tax Office.
Hogan resides in Los Angeles these days, where he lives with his wife Linda.
Recently Hogan came back to Australia to attend the funeral of his mother. While he was here, he was served notice by the Taxation department that he would be prevented from leaving Australia to return home, because of that taxation problem. Rumours flew in every section of the media that he owed anywhere from $30 Million up to $300 Million. As is the nature of the media and anything that has anything to do with any celebrity, they played it up for all its worth. There was the usual innuendo that he was in fact evading Taxes here in Australia, and no matter what Hogan himself said, the inference always seemed to be, ‘well, yeah! We all ‘know’ that you’re doing it’ sort of thing, that ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ alive and well here in Australia.
No matter what Hogan says, or for that matter, what the Taxation Office says, or even what the media says, the real truth may not ever be known.
The problem lies in the fact that he is an International star. He makes movies in the U.S. and pays taxes there on them, and also taxes here in Australia on what those movies make at the Box Offices here in Australia. It’s a grey area, and one that the Tax Office has played up for all its worth. The figures being bandied around are wildly at variance.
Hogan himself has said that in all probability he has paid too much in the way of tax in both Countries on all his earnings.
This is not a new problem, as it has happened before, most notably and probably long forgotten, being the case of the Designer and Architect of the famed Sydney Opera House, Jorn Utzon. Because Australia had no taxation covenant with Denmark, then Utzon was paying the top rate of taxation in his own Country Denmark, as well as the top rate of taxation here in Australia, and all on the same earnings. In actual fact, he was paying more in taxes than he was actually earning. That anomaly was how a newly elected and hostile State Government finally got rid of him, and I detailed that in an earlier post at this link.
The situation with Paul Hogan probably bears remarkable similarities with that of the case of Jorn Utzon, and as much as these wild figures are loosely bandied about, all this needs to be taken with a huge ‘grain of salt’.
This case is not something new, as this dispute between Hogan and the Tax Department is a long running one, and part of the ongoing ‘Operation Wickenby’ in concert with the Australia Federal Police, in a long running crack down on large scale celebrities who have been alleged to have defrauded the Australian Tax Office over the years.
That being the case, then it would seem that Hogan himself, if there was even a small element of truth, would do everything in his power not to come back to Australia, and in a way, that’s a pretty awful thing to say, considering the reason he did come here was to attend the funeral of his Mother. If there was even a small element of truth in this matter, then there is every possibility that he would not have come back, even for that highly personal reason, so I tend to go along with the idea that the problem, if one does exist, is nowhere near the scale that the Australian Tax Office, and sections of the Media have made out.
Either way, huge publicity was made out of the fact that he had been served, and everyone made big media releases about that.
What was not mentioned as loudly, or in media headlines with the same fervour displayed when the problem first came to light, was the fact that in the last couple of days, there has been some resolution of the matter, and Hogan has been given approval to leave the Country, and the presumption is that this has already happened. That being the case, then if the alleged problem was even close to what some of the figures being bandied about might have suggested, then I feel sure that the Tax Office would have said that there would be no way Hogan could leave the Country, full in the knowledge that they would never get another chance to have Hogan here where they wanted him.
I suspect a media beat up, and now that he’s gone, it’s just not worth the news any more.
Either way, none of this takes away from what Hogan has given Australia, and for that fact, the World over so many years.
Incidentally, when Paul Hogan left his job as a painter on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for life as a comedian in that cut and thrust World, it was probably a bit of a gamble on his part. That original job he had as a painter on the Bridge could be perceived as a job for life. Those bridge painters in those days, the late 60′s and into the 70′s, started painting this huge Bridge on one side, and then worked their way across the whole Bridge structure. As soon as they finished on the other side, it was time then to start back on the other side, so they never actually stopped painting. He always said, jokingly, that if he had have not been as successful as a comedian, then he had a good job to go back to.
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Posted on 09/05/2010 by TonyfromOz
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