Crown director Nigel Morrison said the board not acting on the tax issue in 2012 was evidence of cultural problems.Credit:Chris Hopkins
“It tells you that they had an attitude that,if they didn’t think it was overly important and they could get away with it,they did,” said Mr Morrison,who was a senior Crown Melbourne executive from 1993 to 2000.
Mr Morrison and most of his fellow directors first learnt that Crown had avoided paying as much as $272 million through a controversial deduction policy after the information was aired in a royal commission hearing on June 7.
The inquiry into whether Crown should retain its Melbourne casino licence heard last month that Crown classified marketing costs such as free parking as a deduction from its gambling revenue in order to minimise the tax it paid on its poker machines.
“The magnitude was unbelievable,” Mr Morrison said.
Nigel Morrison,pictured outside the royal commission hearing in Melbourne on Tuesday,was a senior Crown Melbourne executive from 1993 to 2000 and joined as a director in March this year.Credit:Eamon Gallagher
The amount Crown potentially underpaid to Victoria is up for debate. Mr Morrison said Crown’s chief financial officer Alan McGregor calculated the figure to be $8 million but the inquiry has also heard estimates of $167 million,$200 million and $272 million.
Mr Morrison said Crown executive chairman Helen Coonan did not disclose to the board in June that she had been aware of the problem since February 23. Company executives ordered a probe into the issue within 36 hours of the Victorian government announcing the royal commission in March.