Crown Resorts and ATO reach a final settlement

Casino operator Crown Resorts reached a settlement with the Australian taxation Office over an €245,3 million tax dispute.

Australia.- The dispute relates to Crown Resorts’ attempted strike into the US market, including its planned €1.58 billion acquisition of Las Vegas casino firm Cannery Casino Resorts – which ran four casinos in Nevada and Pennsylvania – in 2007.

However, the full acquisition never took place, with Crown renegotiating the acquisition of a 24.5% stake instead and a €130,7 million fee to terminate the original deal.

Crown also failed to get its planned Alon resort at the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip up and running, eventually selling the land to Wynn Resorts in 2017 for €270 million.

Disputing the treatment of those transactions as tax deductions, the ATO slapped Crown with an initial €222 million tax bill for the financial years ended 30 June 2009 to 30 June 2014, then a further bill for the years through 30 June 2016. It also dismissed Crown’s objections to the bill in May 2018, with Crown subsequently taking the matter to court.

Finally, in this Thursday filing, Crown said the two parties had now reached a settlement of the matter for an undisclosed amount believed to be well below the €245,3 million the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) was seeking.

“The settlement does not result in material impacts to Crown’s current or future year financial results,” Crown Resorts said.