{"id":1682,"date":"2023-09-29T05:16:08","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T05:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/?p=1682"},"modified":"2023-09-29T05:16:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T05:16:08","slug":"too-many-businesses-roll-the-dice-on-tax-debt-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/too-many-businesses-roll-the-dice-on-tax-debt-jordan\/","title":{"rendered":"Too many businesses roll the dice on tax debt: Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Profitable companies that choose to relegate their tax and super obligations will be a focus of the ATO\u2019s crackdown on collectable debt, Commissioner says.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/acctweb.com.au\/images\/roll-dice.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Too many businesses \u201croll the dice\u201d on tax liabilities and treat them like a free loan, ATO Commissioner Chris Jordan says.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>He said small business owed more than its share of collectable debt and a rising number of profitable businesses with the capacity to pay were choosing not to.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the Tax Institute Summit in Melbourne this morning with six months left of his tenure, Mr Jordan was \u201cunapologetic\u201d about the ATO\u2019s tougher stance on collectable debt and called upon tax professionals to help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost collectable debt is self-assessed. It includes GST a business has collected and received credits for but hasn\u2019t remitted. It includes unpaid pay-as-you go withholding and superannuation guarantee charge that has a direct impact on employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSmall businesses continue to be over-represented in our debt book, owing over $33 billion of the $50.2 billion of collectable debt \u2013 $23 billion of that is unpaid business activity statement debt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a growing number of profitable businesses who have the capacity to pay their bills but are choosing not to. Businesses appear to be deprioritising payment of tax and super.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis needs to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are hearing more and more from tax professionals that some businesses are rolling the dice, treating ATO liabilities like a free loan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am calling on the tax profession for support. You can reinforce to your clients they are only the temporary custodians of GST, pay-as-you-go withholding and super guarantee \u2013 it\u2019s not theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said another focus in his final six months was deliberate fraud, \u201cwhich is nothing more than theft from the community\u201d and the integrity of the tax system in the light of \u201crecent events\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn response to increasing fraud attempts, we are embedding fraud prevention methods into our systems and increasing our detection capabilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have bolstered the number of our people focused squarely on tackling fraud attempts. We have established the Fraud and Criminal Behaviours Group with 500 dedicated staff on the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIntegrity is also front and centre for us. I welcome and support any actions that strengthen the integrity of the tax system. Particularly further review and consideration of current limitations within tax secrecy laws and our investigative powers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIntegrity matters and the public\u2019s desire for integrity in the tax profession is likely to only increase. Recent events are a reminder of the important and trusted role all advisers have and the important role we all play in building trust and confidence in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Philip King<br \/>\n06 September 2023<br \/>\naccountantsdaily.com.au<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><em>Profitable companies that choose to relegate their tax and super obligations will be a focus of the ATO\u2019s crackdown on collectable debt, Commissioner says.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1684,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682\/revisions\/1684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actinvest.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}