The ATO are auditing Healesville (and Hornsby)

 

The ATO’s audit and review processes continue to expand – both in number and the way they are conducted. The ATO has just announced that it is heading off to Healesville where it will visit 400 small businesses within the next month.

They are also off to Hornsby.in Sydney.

The ATO’s press relates states that “people from the Healesville area have told us about some building construction businesses getting an unfair advantage over their honest competitors by not paying by the rules.” Their press release went on to talk about taking action against the black economy and specifically about non-compliance employer obligations.

At the same time, the ATO are running information sessions to assist small businesses; including Single Touch Payroll (STP).

So if the focus is on building and construction within a smallish country town, then it looks like they will match up all the transactions between businesses that operate within that sector.

Such a pilot program was undertaken in the Hunter Valley some years ago. It focused solely on plasterers – both plasterers themselves and those that provided good or services to them.  It was so successful that it lead to the reporting of all contractor payments (Taxable Payments Reporting) within the building and construction industry.  And that system has been so successful, i.e. raised money and fines and interest, that it has now been expanded to include couriers, security and computer programmers.

One can only suspect that if they find under declared wages then they will rightly notify WorkCover.

It will be interesting to hear what they find.

 

At MRS, we will spend today planning for your success.