COVID-19 - ATO ASSISTANCE

The State and Federal Government have recently announced their stimulus packages aimed to help keep “Australians in jobs and businesses in business”. The ATO has set out ways it can help taxpayers as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The ATO has provided the following options as possible ways to obtain tax relief.

1. The ATO will work with you to defer some payments and vary instalments you have due. These include your income tax, activity statement, pay as you go (PAYG) instalments, FBT and excise payments by up to six months..

2. Allow businesses on a quarterly reporting cycle to opt into monthly GST reporting in order to get quicker access to GST refunds they may be entitled to. If a change is made now, the first monthly tax period will be the one starting on 1 April 2020.

3. Changing reporting periods has other consequences – if taxpayers are considering changing before 1 April 2020, please check that these other consequences are acceptable before changing.

4. Taxpayers can vary their quarterly PAYG instalment for the March 2020 quarter. The ATO says it will not apply penalties or charge interest to varied instalments for the 2020 income year.

5. The ATO will consider remitting interest and penalties incurred after 23 January 2020

6. The ATO may be prepared to enter into ‘low interest’ payment plans.

At this stage, the ATO does not have the power to defer or vary any superannuation contribution dates and cannot waive the superannuation guarantee charge. Accordingly, employers are being advised that they will still need to meet their ongoing super guarantee obligations for their employees.

The Tax Office explained that assistance measures for those impacted by the COVID-19 will not be automatically implemented. Businesses and individuals impacted by the COVID-19 are being advised to contact the ATO directly.

Please contact a member of our team at DISAVIA CONSULTING if you would like any assistance dealing with the Australian Taxation Office in this regard.