THE ATO HAVE CHANGED THEIR FOCUS FROM CORPORATE TAXPAYERS TO INDIVIDUALS & SME’s

It has been reported in the media that the ATO has changed its focus from targeting large corporate taxpayers to individuals and SME’s (small business) who, the ATO say are the bigger targets.

The ATO estimates a gap of $11.1 billion in SME tax which is currently the highest dollar figure in Australian tax gap numbers and is larger than the tax gap for large corporates.  They say, much of the gap relates to work related deductions and rental income.

The ATO have new streams of data starting to flow in from sources such as the new Single Touch Payroll system on top of the many streams already in place (such as Bank data, etc).   Their intention is to claw back tax from the community and shrink the gap.

If you’d like to chat further on this matter, feel free to give one of our Accountants a call.