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ATO targeting tradies and excessive personal deductions on tax returns this tax time
Contact TaxAssist Accountants if you need help to submit your tax return.
Construction industry debt
Tax time is here and the ATO has been sending out friendly warning letters to those who owe the most, which happens to be those in the construction industry.
During the pandemic, the ATO paused chasing debts, with the government concentrating on handing out money to business to try and save jobs and livelihoods. Now however, new Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers, is looking to improve the budget balance by chasing sole traders in the building and construction industry and developers, who owed $7.22 billion in the 2020 fiscal year.
Recently, the ATO has been sending out letters called Director Penalty Notices, which are very serious. Don’t ignore them! You will need to pay up, or the ATO can start very damaging processes including taking you to court. Speak to us if you are going to have problems in paying your debt, because it is possible to set up a payment plan.
Excessive claims
The ATO has also put small businesses and sole traders on notice regarding excessive claims relating to personal deductions on tax returns. Areas they are paying close attention to include:
- Claims relating to home offices
- Side hustles
- Covid support payments which need to be included as taxable income (whereas JobKeeper payments, state government voucher subsidies and grants to support the creative economy should not be included)
- Income from cryptocurrency investments
The ATO also advised sole traders who have non-business income, such as salary and wages or income from investments to include this. Small businesses need to include all income in their income tax return, including cash, coupons, EFTPOS, online, credit or debit card transactions and income from platforms such as PayPal, WeChat or Alipay.
Sole traders in the building and construction sectors, as well as people working in the cleaning, courier, information technology, road freight, security and investigations or surveillance industries have been singled out in particular by the ATO, who state they already have the data on their income.
How we can help
If you need us to lodge your tax return, then contact us as soon as possible on 03 8594 1811 or complete our contact form. We’ll be glad to help.
Date published 23 Jun 2022 | Last updated 9 Jul 2022
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