Tax Firm Owner Accused of Making Staff Pay Their Own Salaries for the Privilege of Working There

And you thought your boss sucked.

Parampreet Singh Rajput, owner of KPG Taxation with 13 offices in the Australian provinces of Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, and Queensland, is getting some fresh heat this week thanks to a new segment in A Current Affair. The Aussie A Current Affair should not be confused with the superior American show of the same name hosted by Maury Povich that ran from 1986-1996.

ACA first covered KPG Taxation back in June, introducing the audience to Gangandeep Kaur, an Indian national who came to Australia in 2009. Kaur went to work for KPG Taxation after graduating from university in Melbourne with the firm sponsoring her visa. We’ll let ACA tell you what happened from there:

After she questioned why she had not been paid, she claimed Rajput threatened to cancel her sponsorship, effectively sending her back to India.

She was ordered to pay her wage to her boss first, before he would transfer the money back to her, effectively funding her own wages for a number of months in 2019 — while it appeared as though she was being legitimately paid.

Things took a turn when Kaur claims the company demanded $50,000 from her, in a one-off payment to cover the cost of her employment.

Yikes.

Despite Australian firms offshoring like it’s going out of style now (quite the opposite actually), accountants and auditors were added to Australia’s Skills in Demand visa list last year to address “critical talent shortages.” No such fast track for accounting professionals existed in the 2010s.

Since the first segment aired, more women have come forward to claim similar treatment by KPG Taxation:

Mother-of-one Sumandeep Kaur, who was previously a dentist in India, told A Current Affair she worked for Rajput’s business for two years and eight months and had to pay back her wages for the duration of her employment.

She left the company in 2021.

“That was a nightmare, it should not happen to anyone,” she said.

“He’s ripping apart everyone.”

Sumandeep provided A Current Affair with her bank statements, which she alleged showed her pay coming in and then cash withdrawals at ATMs.

She claimed that cash was used to pay her boss back.

The former dentist says that she had to pay $15,000 for KPG to sponsor her visa initially and that her employer requested $25,000 for another visa. “I was feeling like I am a burden for my family,” she told A Current Affair.

For now Rajput has not received any punishment from licensing bodies or regulators and the Tax Practitioners Board wouldn’t say if an investigation is underway.

Segment here: