Lawyers for media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s 99-year old mother, Dame Elisabeth, yesterday appeared in Australia’s Federal Court to appeal against an assessment by the Australian Tax Office, ordering her to pay $A70m (₤32m) in tax on an $A85m payout from the Murdoch family company, Cruden Investments, in November 1994.

Murdoch short-changed his mother, Elisabeth to the value of $A273m but in an attempt to compensate her, he left her facing a tax bill which has blown out to $70m, according to Sydney Morning Herald.

If her case is unsuccessful, the Murdoch matriarch could be forced to pay the bill, estimated to have compounded to $70m over the past 13 years.

In 1994, while buying out his sisters from the family shareholding in News Corp, Murdoch realised in 1994 when he was buying out his sisters from the family shareholding in Nws Corp that his mother could have earned $A273m more from the four trusts in the 11 years from 1983 to 1994, had they been invested in higher yielding stocks.

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Read story in the Sydney Morning Herald