Planner pleas heard by ATO
Financial planners who were paid commissions by the sponsors of now-banned tax effective schemes, and invested money themselves, have had some success in reclaiming penalties levied by the Australian Tax Office (ATO).
In 2002, the ATO retrospectively disallowed a decade’s worth of tax deductions associated with the schemes, but under a settlement offer were not charged penalties or interest on the tax debt they now owed, and were also able to claim deductions for actual cash payments they had made to the schemes.
While ordinary investors in the schemes were automatically eligible for the settlement offer, advisers who had received commissions from scheme promoters had to apply to the ATO for redress on their own investments.
Of the more than two hundred planners who had applied to the end of 2004, only 59 were granted access to the full settlement offer. Another four were allowed to claim deductions on their cash outlay to the schemes and had some interest remitted, while 169 got nothing but the right to deductions on their cash outlays.
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) said the figures showed that financial planners as a group were not denied access to the ATO's settlement offer.
“The FPA has informed members that it remains prepared to put to Government cases where members are able to demonstrate that they have been discriminated against because of their profession,” the group said in a statement.
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