The Australian Taxation Office are changing their approach to collecting unpaid tax and superannuation debts, focusing on businesses who refuse to engage with them and ignore their requests for payment. This approach, the Taxation Office believe, will make it fairer for compliant businesses that do the right thing and fulfil their tax obligations. Whether you operate a small or large…

Late last year, thousands of taxpayers and their agents were advised by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) that they had an outstanding historical tax debt. The only problem was, many had no idea that the tax debt existed. The ATO can only release a taxpayer from a tax debt in limited situations (e.g., where payment would result in serious hardship).…

The ATO has not pursued many business tax debts during the pandemic and allowed tax refunds to flow through even if the business had a tax debt.  That position has now changed and the ATO has resumed debt collection and offsetting tax debts against refunds. If you have a tax debt that has been on-hold, expect the ATO to offset…