Tax Avoidance Hot Issue For ATO

To suppress tax dodging behaviour, the government is pushing hard at several initiatives at the federal, state and territorial levels. Last year, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) reported that about a third of large corporations did not pay tax for the 2020-2021 financial year. Despite this substantial difference, the ATO…

ATO Faces Criticism Over Agent Linking Process

Several accounting bodies are urging the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to amend the new tax agent linking system. The process was earlier targeted at major public and multinational enterprises with sizable in-house accounting services but will soon be rolled out for small businesses. The ATO has criticised its design as…

Audit Shield claims activity across Australia Jul – Dec 2022

The Accountancy Insurance Claims Department continues to be busy processing claims from client accounting firms across Australia. The five most common audit activity areas 1 July 2022 – 31 December 2022 were: > Payroll Tax (All States) > Employer Obligations (PAYG/SG/FBT) > Income Tax (WRE) > BAS (Pre & Post…

Accounting Sector Amongst Top Wage Growth Earners

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) confirms the seasonally-adjusted wage price index, or WPI, rose by 0.7% as of the June quarter, for the third consecutive quarter. The professional services segment, which includes accounting professionals, saw wages rise by 2.9%. This is one of the highest increases in…

ATO Warns That Filing Early Increases Risk of Mistakes

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) wants taxpayers to be aware that filing their tax returns early may not be the best option. While you can begin filing returns as early as 1 July, you run the risk of making mistakes as not all required information will have been pre-filled at…

ATO Advice for Lodging Cryptocurrency Losses

With the recent downturn in the cryptocurrency market, there is likely to be a good number of investors that will be reporting losses. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) is however flagging this as an issue of concern that investors need to be more careful about at tax time. According to…

ATO Warns Taxpayers Against Double Dipping

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has confirmed that in 2021, about 8.4 million Australian taxpayers filed claims on almost $19.8 billion in work-related expenses. Assistant Commissioner, Tim Loh, noted that these were a lot of deductions and that the tax body wanted to ensure taxpayers got their claims right the…

ATO to Resume Recovery of Debts on Hold

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has informed tax professionals that their clients will begin receiving notification letters on any outstanding aged debt beginning May 2022. Aged debt, or debts on hold, are uneconomic non-pursued debts that are not visible on the balance of taxpayers’ accounts as they have been classified…

ATO Issues Reminder on FBT Obligations

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) is reminding employers that they may have fringe benefits tax (FBT) obligations that they need to file for before the deadline which falls on 23 May 2022 for those lodging their own returns or lodging paper returns. The deadline for returns being lodged using registered…

IPA Criticizes ATO On New 100A Guidelines

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) released draft documents concerning the tax treatment of trusts. These guidelines provide recommendations as to how section 100A under the Income Tax Assessment Act of 1936 should be applied in regards to trust stripping arrangements. A key focus of the documents is where distributions are…