The Australian Tax Office has launched a recruitment drive to crack down on tax avoidance by large multinational companies and wealthy individuals.
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The job advertisements come after Treasurer Scott Morrison announced an additional 390 staff would be added to the 1300-strong taskforce at a cost of $680 million over four years.
ATO staff were told of the recruitment drive on the same day Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was named in the Panama Papers as the former director of an offshore company set up by Mossack Fonseca.
ATO deputy commissioner Erin Holland told staff the office would advertise internally and externally for multiple positions from junior staffers to senior executives.
Ms Holland said the recruitment drive was the result of "substantively vacant positions" across the client engagement group but insisted positions would be filled within current affordability.
Tax specialists, team leaders and client engagement officer positions will be advertised from Thursday with further advertisements in late May. Additional senior executive positions will be advertised in early June.
The tax avoidance taskforce will pursue cases of deliberate tax avoidance and evasion, with the government hoping to raise $5.3 billion over four years by imposing additional penalties and closing loopholes.
The office cut 4440 staff between September 2013 and early 2015, with some staff complaining about the loss of "go-to people".
About 550 ATO middle managers, nearly 12 per cent of the Tax Office's senior cohort, applied for redundancies when they were announced in August. More than 260 missed out.
Last week ATO staff rejected the office's latest enterprise agreement with a 71 per cent no-vote, opting to gamble on a more favourable deal after the July election.
The Australian Tax Office is aware of more than 800 wealthy Australian clients linked to Mossack Fonseca, with some cases likely to be referred to the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce.
The Panama Papers, published as an online searchable database by the International Consortium of Journalists, represented a small fraction of the 11.5 million leaked files from the firm, known as a leading creator of trusts and foundations in tax havens.
Being named on the ICIJ database does not mean people have broken the law, engaged in tax avoidance or acted improperly. There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts, including legally reducing tax bills.
