The ATO is providing administrative relief to taxpayers experiencing difficulty due to COVID-19. This includes:
- Businesses on a quarterly BAS reporting cycle are able to change to a monthly cycle to more quickly access GST and Fuel Tax Credit refunds. Please note that the change can only be made from the start of a quarter (e.g. 1 April 2020) and monthly reporting is compulsory for the following 12 months.
- The ATO will be more lenient with remitting interest and penalties incurred after 23 January 2020. As your tax agent we can liaise with the ATO regarding remission requests and historically we have a high success rate for clients regarding 100% remissions (interest/penalties reduced to nil).
- Deferring the payment due date on income tax and FBT out to 12 September 2020 AND stopping interest accruing.
- PAYG Instalment payers can vary their instalment to nil and claim a refund for instalments already paid during the current 2019-20 financial year. Variations will not attract penalties.
Importantly, some of these relief measures need to be discussed with the ATO – they are not all automatic.
Also, employers must continue to pay compulsory superannuation on-time. The March 2020 quarterly obligations are due before 28 April 2020.
To read other April 2020 Client Alerts, click here.