Breaking News - ATO Press Release on Debt Collection

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Breaking News - ATO Prioritising Support and Assistance for Debt Collection Efforts.

IN SUMMARY

The ATO wants taxpayers to engage with the ATO, ie respond to calls, set up a payment plan
If not, the ATO is now “taking firmer actions. These include garnishees, recovery of director penalties, disclosure of business tax debts, and legal actions including summons, creditors petition, wind-up and insolvency action.
The ATO is starting with larger debts and superannuation debts of any size
The ATO has sent 52,000 Director Penalty Notice warning letters. These are not actual DPNs. A DPN can make a director personally liable for the company’s debts to the ATO.
The ATO is issuing 30-40 actual DPNs a day and expects to increase this.
The ATO has sent 29,000 letters warning businesses of potential disclosure of their ATO debt to credit reporting bureaus, which they can do for business ATO debt >$100,000.

Next Steps

Please don’t do nothing - you don’t want to end up personally liable for the company’s debts - it’s not worth it.

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