`Crocodile Dundee' Actor Wins Deal to Return to U.S.

Paul Hogan, the Australian actor best known for his “Crocodile Dundee” films, has reached an agreement with the nation’s tax office that will allow him to leave the country, his lawyer said.

Hogan, embroiled in a five-year dispute with the tax office over his earnings outside the country, flew to Australia two weeks ago to attend his mother’s funeral and was ordered to remain until the dispute was resolved.

“The parties have reached agreement on terms (which include the provision of security) which will allow Mr. Hogan to return to his family” in Los Angeles, Andrew Robinson, Hogan’s lawyer, said in an e-mail today. “The commissioner and Mr. Hogan remain in dispute on more general taxation issues.”

The Australian Taxation Office and other agencies are investigating promoters of tax havens and their clients. The office collected A$51 million ($46 million) in unpaid taxes after more than 100 civil investigations, Michael D’Ascenzo, the commissioner of taxation, said in a statement on the agency’s website. Officials in Australia’s tax office declined to comment on Hogan’s case.

In an interview with the Australian news show “A Current Affair” Aug. 31, Hogan said for legal reasons he couldn’t disclose the amount of tax he is accused of owing. He said he couldn’t pay 10 percent of the assessment that had been issued.

Hogan, 70, lives in Los Angeles, where he has a wife and a child. He has five children, nine grandchildren and a brother and sister living in Australia and has frequently traveled to visit them, Robinson said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Schneider in Sydney at jschneider5@bloomberg.net.

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