'Empathetic' ATO reached out to Storm community

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) was required to give assistance to the Far North Queensland city of Cairns this year following a number of financial crises hitting the region, including the collapse of Storm Financial.

Speaking at the Council of Small Business Summit in Brisbane yesterday, Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said the ATO had been “empathetic” to viable businesses facing short-term difficulties, and would continue to be so. D’Acenszo said the ATO’s support of the small business community had included offering “targeted assistance” to struggling regional areas.

He said earlier this year Cairns had been identified as one of those regions, in part due to the impact the collapse of Storm Financial had on local investors. Cairns had also suffered high unemployment, and had a significant number of businesses with outstanding tax debts. The poor economic climate in the city also affected the local building industry and restaurants.

D’Ascenzo said the ATO had made more than 1,000 calls to small business owners in Cairns with debts of more than $25,000 or outstanding lodgements, while more than 190 local businesses requested onsite assistance visits.

Meanwhile the Tax Commissioner announced that two assistance measures introduced last year would be extended for another 12 months.

“We will be allowing interest-free payment arrangements and [the] deferral of activity statement payment dates for viable businesses in short-term difficulties,” D’Ascenzo said.

“In this next phase, businesses must be willing to enter into direct debit arrangements with us.”

Meanwhile, D’Ascenzo indicated the ATO would be cracking down on those unwilling to work with it, and those with escalating tax debts and who didn’t meet outstanding superannuation guarantee debts.

“We will investigate all complaints about employers not complying with their superannuation guarantee payments. This year we expect to take action on over 17,500 employee complaints about unpaid super.”

Self-managed superannuation funds are also under the spotlight, with the ATO planning to audit more than 10,000 funds with a particular focus on loans to related parties, income tax obligations, deductions claimed for exempt current pension income and treatment of losses.

“We also plan to review 40 self-managed superannuation funds where re-reporting of member contributions appears to have been done to avoid tax liability for excess contributions made by one or more the trustees,” D’Ascenzo said.