Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Tax Integrity and Other Measures No. 1) Bill 2019, was recently passed by the Senate. Part of the legislation was about disclosure of business tax debts. Schedule 5 to the Bill allows taxation officers to disclose the business tax debt information of a taxpayer to credit reporting bureaus in certain situations.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) believes that this law will allow tax debts to be placed on a similar footing as other debts, strengthening the incentives for businesses to pay their debts in a timely manner and effectively engage with the ATO to avoid having their tax debt information disclosed.
This proposal was first announced in the 2016-17 Mid-year economic and fiscal outlook with a consultation paper released. The good news is that after consultation the tax debt threshold was raised from the initial proposal of $10,000 to $100,000. Having said that there is concern that the threshold could easily be reduced as the threshold is not part of the legislation but a legislative instrument.
The key targets of the legislation are taxpayers who have an ABN and have one or more tax debts, the total of which is at least $100,000, that has been overdue for more than 90 days and are not engaging with the Commissioner to manage the tax debt. If these all occur then the debt can be disclosed to a credit reporting bureau. There are exemptions for deductible gift recipients, complying superannuation funds, registered charities and government entities.
Learn about the new features and the safety provisions of the law from Effective PD’s webinar on “Disclosure of Business Tax Debts”. The webinar also covers other areas of the Bill such CGT Assignment, Extending anti-avoidance rules for circular trust distributions and the system for electronic invoicing.
Subscribe to Effective PD’s webinar. Visit www.effectivepd.com.au. Effective PD offers an innovative way for busy accountants to be on top of their game with continuing professional development in a brief, flexible and easy way.
