SMS Sent For Incorrect Bank Account Submission

The ATO has advised that it will send SMS text messages directly to taxpayers where incorrect bank account details were included in their tax returns and they were entitled to a refund.

The SMS will advise impacted taxpayers that:

• their refund cannot be processed due to incorrect bank account details; and

• they should phone the ATO on 13 28 61 to correct their details.

If impacted taxpayers contact the ATO with their correct details within seven days, any refund due will be issued electronically.

Taxpayers need to exercise additional caution when dealing with electronic messaging from (or purportedly from) the ATO. The authenticity of ATO correspondence can be verified by calling the ATO on 1800 008 540.

VAT Office Closure

We'd like to wish all our clients a Merry Christmas and a happy and safe new year.

We look forward to continuing our work with you in 2019.

Please note our offices will be closed from
5pm Thursday 20 December 2018
and will re-open at
9am Monday 7 January 2019

Scammers impersonating tax agents

The ATO has received increasing reports of a new take on the ‘fake tax debt’ scam, whereby scammers are now impersonating registered tax agents to lend legitimacy to their phone call.

The fraudsters do this by coercing the victim into revealing their agent’s name and then initiating a three-way phone conversation between the scammer, the victim, and another scammer impersonating the victim’s registered tax agent or someone from the agent’s practice.

As the phone conversations with the scammers appeared legitimate and the victims trusted the advice of the scammer ‘tax agent’, victims have been falling for this new approach.

In a recent example, a victim withdrew thousands of dollars in cash and deposited it into a Bitcoin ATM, fearing that police had a warrant out for their arrest.

The ATO is reminding taxpayers that they will never:

• demand immediate payments;

• threaten them with arrest; or

• request payment by unusual means, such as iTunes vouchers, store gift cards or Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

Taxpayers are advised that if they are suspicious about a phone call from someone claiming to be the ATO, then they should disconnect and call the ATO or their tax agent to confirm the status of their tax affairs and verify the call.

Ban on electronic sales suppression tools

From 4 October 2018, the Government has banned activities involving electronic sales suppression tools (‘ESSTs’) that relate to people or businesses that have Australian tax obligations.

The production, supply, possession or use of an ESST (or knowingly assisting others to do so) may attract criminal and administrative penalties.

ESSTs can come in different forms and are constantly evolving, some examples include:

• An external device connected to a point of sale (‘POS’) system.

• Additional software installed into otherwise-compliant software.

• A feature or modification that is a part of a POS system or software.

An ESST may allow income to be misrepresented and under-reported by:

• deleting transactions from electronic record-keeping systems;

• changing transactions to reduce the amount of a sale;

• misrepresenting sales records (e.g., by allowing GST taxable sales to be re- categorised as GST non-taxable sales); or

• falsifying POS records.

Transitional arrangements are in place for six months starting from 4 October 2018 to 3 April 2019 for possessing an ESST.

Taxpayers may avoid committing an offence for possessing an ESST if they:

• acquired it before 7:30pm 9 May 2017; and

• advise the ATO that they possess the tool.

Importantly, the transitional provisions do not apply to the manufacture, development, publication, supply or use of an ESST.

Depending on the offence and severity of the crime, taxpayers can face financial penalties of up to 5,000 penalty units, which currently equates to over $1 million.

Expansion of the TPRS

The Taxable Payments Reporting System (‘TPRS’) has been expanded to the cleaning and courier services industries from 1 July 2018.

Businesses that have an ABN and make any payments to contractors for cleaning or courier services provided on behalf of the business must lodge a Taxable Payments Annual Report (‘TPAR’) each income year.

The first TPAR for payments made to contractors from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019 will be due by 28 August 2019.

Where cleaning or courier services are only part of the services provided by the business, they will need to work out what percentage of the payments they receive are for these services each income year to determine if a TPAR is required to be lodged.

Specifically, if the total payments the business receives for the relevant services are:

• 10% or more of their GST turnover – a TPAR must be lodged.

• Less than 10% of their GST turnover – a TPAR is not required to be lodged, but the business can choose to lodge one.