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Australians identified in the Panama Papers could soon face criminal charges, the Australian Taxation Office says.
The ATO is investigating more Australian taxpayers identified in the papers, particularly those which have curious tax structures in Hong Kong. 
On Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner Michael Cranston told Fairfax Media that Hong Kong "stood out" as the main low-tax jurisdiction linked to Australian taxpayers, and it now is looking at 140 cases linked with the low-tax nation. The agency has shared its intelligence with AUSTRAC and the police.
The ATO last month revealed that it had identified over 800 individual taxpayers in the Panama Papers and had at the time linked 120 of them to an associate offshore service provider located in Hong Kong.
On Tuesday the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published the leaked list of wealthy and often high-profile clients of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Some of Australia's most well-known companies and rich-listers are named in the Panama Papers for their use of offshore companies and trusts.
Mr Cranston said not all tax structures identified as part of the Panama Papers were illegal, but "there's the Hong Kong link that we have to work on".
"We have more information via our international networks than what's been published [by the ICIJ]. And we're improving on that. It's early days."
And in regards to "some of the more serious matters, the police would be working on that" and criminal charges could be laid, he said.
  Panama Papers link with ATO amnesty  
Mr Cranston also confirmed that about 10 individuals who came forward as part of the ATO's recent amnesty for people with offshore income and assets - dubbed internally as Project Do It - had been listed in the Panama Papers.
"We just saw particular taxpayers with a Swiss bank account set up by Mossack Fonseca," he said, but added that there had been nothing untoward and that the ATO was "very comfortable" with those tax structures which was why the individuals were awarded lenient penalties for their voluntary declarations.
The Tax Office received more than 5800 disclosures as part of the amnesty, resulting in more than $5 billion in assets declared and more than $600 million of omitted income disclosed. But according to the ATO's most recent annual report, the amnesty had raised just $127 million in collections.
The ATO expects this figure to rise when assets and income are brought into the tax system. Mr Cranston said apart from the revenue impact, the amnesty was worthwhile because it had given the ATO useful intelligence on about 100 advisers - intermediaries, accountants and trustee services - that have links to Mossack Fonseca.
If anyone who had come forward as part of the amnesty had not disclosed their Panama connections, they would be investigated. "If we find out they have money linked to Panama we will follow up," he said.
The head of Arnold Bloch Leibler, Mark Leibler, who advises many of the nation's wealthiest clients and was the architect of the amnesty, said those who participated in Project Do It will be protected provided they made a full disclosure.
But he had "no doubt some Australian people on that [Panama Papers] list have committed serious criminal offences unrelated to tax, and therefore would not have been protected by the amnesty". Nevertheless, there were also a substantial number that were making legitimate use of Mossack Fonseca, he said.
   Countries need to work together  
Mr Cranston said the ATO was "well placed" in tracking down criminals listed in the Panama Papers, but globally a greater effort to stamp out tax avoidance was needed.
"We need more countries to sign up to country-by-country reporting and need stronger ultimate beneficiary ownership rules," he said. "Most of the rules mean you have to know your client and have a trust structure. It has to be linked to a natural person. And what they're [the OECD is] trying to make sure is that all countries have standard laws [in place]."
Labor has said there should be higher penalties for non-compliance with country-by-country reporting and that there should be an obligation to disclose the beneficial ownership for Australian legal identities. Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh said Labor had called for a central registry of the beneficial ownership of companies, trusts and other corporate structures to ensure that "Australia cannot be used as a destination for money-laundering, tax evasion, terrorism financing or other criminal behaviour".
Almost 320,000 offshore entities globally are part of the ICIJ's Panama Papers and the Offshore Leaks investigations, over nearly 40 years - from 1977 through 2015.
The database shows direct connections to Australia including 118 offshore entities (companies, trusts and foundations), more than 1700 officers (directors, shareholders and/or beneficiaries), 200 intermediaries (lawyers and service providers who help set up or act as the registered agents for the offshore companies) and 1400 addresses.