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Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan -
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Australian actor Paul Hogan will be there when his son starts
high school in America next week after the taxman agreed to let him
go home after a two-week stand-off.
The travel ban placed on the 70-year-old by the Australian Taxation
Office (ATO) was lifted on Friday, ending his prolonged stay Down
Under following his mother's funeral.
Hogan is expected to be on one of the next flights out of Australia
to Los Angeles.
Media are already camped out at Sydney's International Terminal,
hoping to grab a parting shot of the Crocodile Dundee Star.
The actor returns home with an alleged multimillion-dollar tax
debt, which he claims he doesn't owe and can't pay.
"While the commissioner and Mr Hogan remain in dispute on more
general taxation issues, Mr Hogan continues to protest his
innocence and denies any wrongdoing," his lawyer Andrew Robinson
said in a statement.
The ATO served him with a departure prohibition order in mid-August
when he returned to Australia after his mother's death.
But after a "cordial and cooperative meeting" between the ATO and
Hogan on Friday, Robinson said the star had been allowed to return
to his home in America.
He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Linda Kozlowski and their son
Chance.
Earlier in the week, Hogan said he was hopeful the ATO would
lift the travel ban it placed on him so he could be there when his
son starts high school next week.
But Robinson said his client still wanted to have his day in court
and was not looking to be let off because of the work he has done
to promote Australia over his career.
Hogan has insisted he has already paid too much tax in Australia
and is the victim of a witchhunt.
"If I was a tax evader, which I'm not, I must be the dumbest one in
the world," he told the Nine Network on Tuesday.
"I keep coming back here to the country, and instead of fleeing to
a tax haven, I fled to the United States of America ...
"I want not to get special treatment. I'm just Hoges and all I ever
wanted was a fair go."
