The ATO will be robust in collecting this money; our belief is its gloves off after Australia Day 2022.
Your Business Angels will blog a series of articles about what the taxman will do this year, how we will help those who have a tax debt as well push what we consider the best ways to manage BAS and other compliance debt.
in an article online written by Maja Gareca Djordjevic on 30 June 2021, she said that
“Small and medium businesses owe $21 billion to the ATO, according to new data compiled by the Inspector-General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman (IGTO). But despite this record figure, a vast majority of small business owners are said to be doing the right thing”.
“In fact, according to the Australia Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Bruce Billson, over half of this collectable debt is held by just 6.4 per cent of SMEs.
“This report shows that while collectable debt owed by small businesses to the ATO has reached an all-time high, in reality, the breakdown sees the majority of debt owed by very few SMEs while the remainder is tiny amounts of debt spread over a small percentage of Australia’s more than 2 million SMEs,” Mr Billson explained.
“Less that one per cent of small businesses owe $2.5 billion to the ATO, according to the ATO’s report.”
However, what is cause for concern is the reported decline in small business payment plan arrangements over the past three years”.
We have heard that the debt is much larger than this, and while it appears that a small percentage of SMEs owe this debt, the impact of that debt being collected could be dramatic right across this business sector.
The ATO will be robust in collecting this money; our belief is its gloves off after Australia Day 2022.
If you want to collect $21 billion over a short period, then the impact will be dramatic for everybody.
With all this in mind, it is still unfair to leave businesses without their tax paid while others make up the funds required for the federal and state coppers.
Job keeper saw the Australian Taxation Office giving money away rather than collecting it. This included $10 billion going to not-for-profit businesses, including massive sugar hits and cash to large firms and corporations with rising sales. In the end a payout heading towards $72 Billion.
In the first of several blogs about what we face in 2022 with tax, this article wants businesses with tax debt to focus on this reality.
You must plan to survive and thrive.
If you are labouring with a tax debt, we are going to hear from the ATO, and Your Business Angels is here to help you.
Compliant businesses but may be hit by those around struggling with cash as they pay their BAS and catch up on their debts, including income tax. Be watchful over your business – we will certainly be.
The taxman has used the post office a lot in the last two years. Many different coloured letters ask taxpayers and ABN holders to start making payments or agreements to make payments.
A computer generates these letters, and generally, there is no ATO that even knows they were sent out. They may have been put into various categories for action in the future.
We expect these blue and green letters to turn to read notes, threatening action if the letter’s receiver doesn’t do something in terms of making an agreement and beginning to make payment.
As a Your Business Angels clients we monitor your mail and will be watchful.
We also expect the ATO to start making phone calls and chasing debt. Of course, the risks of this are that those who make phone calls and run scams will also increase at the same time.
We will cover what to do when you receive a phone call (refer it to us is the obvious choice).
For those who have a tax debt, this article gives you a heads up that you will be chased soon and that you should prepare your business for that.
For those that don’t have a tax debt the articles that follow this are important because they will tell you what can be done to deal with the ATO and how to manage tax in the future, following what we propose may improve the financial health and cash flow of your business.
After two years of inactivity from the ATO, expect thunder and lightning.
