ATO Debt

General Interest Charges (“GIC”) is an interest charge that is incurred onto of your outstanding principal debt, including Income Tax, Fringe Benefit Tax, Goods & Services Tax and Pay as you Go. The interest charge is compounded daily. Section 8AAD of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 specifies how the rate of the charge is calculated. To work out the daily rate, divide this rate by the number of days in a calendar year. The GIC is updated quarterly. The December 2018 quarter rate is 8.96% Annually and 0.024% daily

This is an automated letter of correspondence issued by the ATO for unpaid tax debts and/or outstanding lodgements.

This acts as the first contact point for the ATO to allow you to engage payment of the outstanding debt/lodgement.

You have the opportunity to engage into a payment arrangement that is tailored to your cashflow which ensures that all future lodgements are made on time and paid in full in addition to your payment plan repayments.

The ATO is the principal revenue collection agency of the Australian Government.

The ATO manage and shape the taxation and superannuation systems that support and fund services for Australians, including:

• collecting revenue;
• administering the goods and services tax (GST) on behalf of the Australian states and territories;
• administering a range of programs that provide transfers and benefits to the community;
• administering the major aspects of Australia’s superannuation system; and
• being custodian of the Australian Business Register.

Your rights as a taxpayer can be accessed through the following link:

https://www.ato.gov.au/About-ATO/Commitments-and-reporting/Taxpayers–charter/

Our expertise in pragmatic commercial resolutions enables us to provide a series of options that most accountants would have never known existed. We have found that our most common client expression is “Why has my accountant never told me this before?”.

Yes. GIC remissions are assessable income in the year in which it was remitted.

A Director Penalty Notice (“DPN”) is a formal notice that can be issued by the ATO to the director(s) of a company to notify them that as a result of the company’s failure to lodge and/or pay the Superannuation Guarantee Charge (“SGC”) or PAYGW (“Pay as you go withholding”) the director has become personally liable for those debt.

DPN’s will be sent to a director’s place of residence or the business address recorded on the ASIC database. Despite the fact that the address is incorrect, the director is still deemed to have received the notice. It is imperative that ASIC information is always kept up to date.

A “21-day” DPN commences on the date the notice was mailed and not when received. This also applies to a “Lockdown” DPN.

This is a notice issued by the ATO that effectively forces the company to pay tax debts or appoint an external administrator within 21 days, failing to do so will result in the director becoming personally liable for the debt

This is a notice issued by the ATO where the company has failed to lodge the monthly/quarterly BAS & SGC Statements within 3 months of the lodgement date

This DPN permanently “locks down” the director, therefore there is no opportunity to remit/cancel the debt other than paying it in full

A garnishee notice is a measure the ATO can enforce to recover unpaid company debts

The notice is issued to anyone that owes you money or your financial institution to withhold funds and remit them to the ATO upon receipt of the notice

The notice can be either a “point in time” or “ongoing”

A “point in time” notice acts as a once off enforcement to remit the lesser amount of 30% of the balance in the account of the full tax debt

An “ongoing” notice requires the bank to pay to the ATO any money that it holds at the time of receipt of the notice, up to the full amount of the tax debt, and a requirement to pay any future money that it receives from you to the full amount of the tax debt.

No. This gives the ATO the opportunity to issues a Lockdown DPN.

You should immediately get in contact with us as tax agents are allowed extended lodgement dates and can also lodge deferral requests.

It’s likely. Many government agencies are subject to scammers trying to force you to provide information over the phone and pay debts you never knew existed. If you believe you have been subject to a scam call you should contact us immediately and we can confirm with the ATO if this was the case.