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The rich Taiwanese-Australian family behind the Nature’s Care brand lied to the tax office about their income, court documents allege.
Already a subscriber?The tax office imposed a $207 million freezing order on a wealthy Taiwanese-Australian business family after reading inCourt documents show the tax office also considers Wu family, which founded the Nature’s Care vitamins business, to be a flight risk.
The documents show the tax office believes they have a history of failing to disclose all their income. The family property in Sydney’s Ingleside suburb owned by Alex Wu and Jina Chen, founder of Nature’s Care.Nature’s Care founder Jina Chen, husband Alex Wu, and sons Jack and Michael Wu are being pursued for tax they allegedly should have paid when they sold three-quarters of Nature’s Care to Chinese private equity funds in 2018. While the size of their total assets is unclear, Nature’s Care was valued around $600 million when sold, likely placing them along the richest Taiwanese-Australians ever – and a source of embarrassment to the tax office if they leave the country without paying their $207 million bill.On Monday, Federal Court judge Tom Thawley convened a hearing to consider a challenge by theto a suppression order sought by the Wu family over thousands of pages of the tax office’s evidence and legal submissions in the case.Justice Thawley suppressed Monday’s hearing, but the Wu family’s lawyers allowed several hundred redacted pages to become part of the court record.published October 8 that the family might be about to sell its last liquid asset in Australia for $250 million. A global freezing order was granted on December 20 by Federal Court judge Nye Perram after the tax office told him “there is a real danger that assets which would otherwise be available to satisfy any judgment that the applicant will obtain against the respondents will be dissipated”. “In particular, the main assets of the respondents are highly liquid, and the respondents are internationally mobile, spending a significant amount of time outside of Australia.”The Wu family has kept a low profile since starting their Sydney vitamins business in 1990. Almost no photos of them exist on the public record and it is not clear if they have ever given media interviews. Ms Chen states that she lives in Taipei. Her husband’s registered address is in a family compound in the northern Sydney suburb of Ingleside near the Nature’s Care head office in Belrose. Son Jack Wu lives in a Chinese-builtin Sydney’s Milsons Point and his brother Michael lives with their mother in Taiwan, according to court records. The family said through a spokesman: “formal objections have been lodged in respect of the amended assessments in accordance with the ATO’s usual appeal process, and the Wus are awaiting the outcome of that process.”The Wus are involved in a separate legal case over control of Nature’s Care with their Chinese business partners. The business “appears to be the only asset in Australia owned by them pursuant to which they will be able to satisfy their tax liabilities,” according to the tax office. A seller of fish oil, garlic extract and other food supplements to Chemist Warehouse and retailers overseas, the Wus did not tell the tax office when they sold most of Nature’s Care in 2018 through companies registered in the British Virgin Isles, according to the documents.After the sale was reported in the press, the tax office audited the family. “Alex Wu and Jina Chen, by their contentions made during the audit, sought to mislead the applicant in relation to the true nature of transactions that were examined during the audit,” the tax office says in the documents. Each member of the family has been required to disclose the nature and value of their assets around the world, although the tax office has conceded that it might have little chance of using assets held in Taiwan to pay an Australian tax bill. The family owns commercial and residential property in Sydney, including a building used by a Jaycar Electronics outlet, a gluten-free pizza outlet and a gymnasium in Hornsby. Nature’s Care’s operating profits last year were $23.7 million, and forecast to be $32.8 million this year. The business has about $180 million in loans. After failing to make a debt payment last October, the Chinese owners considered placing Nature’s Care in administration, according to court documents, although appeared to have been outmanoeuvred when the Wu family bought most of the debt over the summer holidays.Email Aaron at
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