ATO BAS notification period extended (May 2024 Federal Budget Update)

Published on 15 May 2024 by Drew Pflaum
Categories: Accounting, News

The Government will extend the time the ATO has to notify a taxpayer if it intends to retain a business activity statement (BAS) refund for further investigation. The ATO’s mandatory notification period for BAS refund retention will be increased from 14 days to 30 days to align with time limits for non-BAS refunds.

The extended period will strengthen the ATO’s ability to combat fraud during peak fraud events like the one that triggered Operation Protego. Legitimate refunds will be largely unaffected. Any legitimate refunds retained for over 14 days would result in the ATO paying interest to the taxpayer (as is currently the case). The ATO will publish BAS processing times online.