Where "Bottom of the Harbour" Comes From
The scheme involved buying a company with an outstanding tax bill, stripping it of its assets and cash, then selling the empty shell — along with its unpaid tax liability — to someone with no means or interest in paying, often destroying the company's records in the process.
The name comes from the idea that the company, once stripped and abandoned, effectively "sank" without a trace, as if dumped at the bottom of Sydney Harbour — the practice became a criminal offence under the Crimes (Taxation Offences) Act 1980.
"The businessman was caught up in a bottom of the harbour scheme from the '70s."
How Aussies Actually Use It
"Bottom of the harbour" is used, usually attributively, to describe this specific type of tax avoidance scheme or anything reminiscent of its shady, disappearing-act nature.
It remains a byword in Australian business and political history for large-scale, brazen tax avoidance from the 1970s.
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