ATO clamps down on GST fraud

Australian Taxation Office (ATO) commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo (pictured) has renewed his promise to clamp down on GST fraud and failure to report cash income, after a WA director was sentenced to jail.

A director from Western Australia, Joanne De Hollander, was sentenced to three years’ jail, with a non-parole period of 20 months for understating cash business sales by over $5.6 million.

She had also underpaid GST obligations by $514,000 for two companies of which she was the sole director.

D’Ascenzo repeated those actions were illegal.

“Doing the wrong thing towards your obligations insults those in the community, including other businesses who do the right thing – and that’s is just not fair,” D’Ascenzo said.

The ATO Tax Evasion Referral Centre received 44,000 contacts, including calls, letters, faxes and emails from the community relating to those who may be committing fraud.

Tax commissioner said 28 people were prosecuted for over $17 million worth of GST-related fraud offences.

The ATO had increased scrutiny of businesses deliberately not reporting cash income, with over 1.4 million small businesses evaluated against its risk detection systems.

“A key part of our Compliance Program is increasing our focus on non-complying taxpayers in the GST system, with $337 million provided in last financial year’s budget for this purpose; we are also focusing on those who fail to report some or all cash transactions,” D’Ascenzo said.