Paul Hogan strikes tax deal to return to US

Actor Paul Hogan, star of the Crocodile Dundee movie trilogy, has been cleared to return home to the United States after he was barred from leaving Australia because of a disputed tax bill, his lawyer said yesterday.

The Australian-born actor, who lives in Los Angeles, arrived in Sydney on 20 August for his mother's funeral.

He was served with a tax department order barring him from leaving Australia until he settled a multi-million dollar tax bill, lawyer Andrew Robinson said last week. Yesterday, Mr Robinson said that, after a "cordial and co-operative" meeting between Hogan's lawyers and tax officials, an agreement had been reached that will allow him to return to America.

"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," Mr Robinson said.

Australian tax and crime investigators have fought Mr Hogan in a five-year legal battle in Australian and US courts to investigate whether or not he used offshore bank accounts to conceal earnings after his low-budget Crocodile Dundee movie became a hit in 1986.

Hogan, 70, has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with tax evasion. In an interview with TV show A Current Affair, Mr Hogan said he couldn't disclose the exact bill, but said that he was unable to afford even a tenth of it.