TPB notified 7 thousand tax agencies due to unpaid debts and payments

The ATO and the Board of Tax Practitioners have warned tax practitioners of the consequences of failing to comply with their tax obligations, with the latest ATO analysis revealing thousands of tax agents have outstanding liabilities.

Speaking at a recent webinar, TPB chief executive Michael O’Neill said the latest statistics from September showed most tax practitioners were doing the right thing, but a significant number of practitioners were falling behind on debt and payment obligations.

Statistics show there are 2,000 tax practitioners who owe unpaid tax in excess of $10,000 without an ATO payment plan.

TPB also found there were nearly 5,000 tax practitioners with one or more outstanding ATO notices, including income tax returns and activity statements.

Within this group, approximately 700 tax practitioners have outstanding ATO payments and unpaid tax liabilities exceeding $10,000 without an ATO payment plan.

O’Neill said the outstanding tax debts owed by tax practitioners were not disputed debts, but self-assessed debts that included taxes such as PAYG withholding, GST and pensions. He also said failure to pay these debts could lead to knock-on disadvantages for workers in terms of retirement benefits.

O’Neill said the number of tax practitioners failing to comply with their obligations was “very high” and represented around 10 per cent of the registered tax practitioner population.

He warned that if a tax practitioner falls behind in meeting their obligations, sometimes that behavior can spill over into their clients’ businesses.

“We issued a reminder last December to remind people of their obligations and it was great to see so many people bringing their obligations up to date,” O’Neill said. he said.

“Since then we have been contacting practitioners directly who have outstanding tax liabilities, have fallen behind on payments or arrears, and have again seen a good response rate.

“If you have received correspondence and contacted the ATO or TPB, the worst thing you can do is ignore the warning. The best thing to do is to contact the ATO and TPB. The more openness and transparency they provide, the better they will always achieve a better outcome.”

Speaking at the same webinar, ATO deputy commissioner frontline risk and strategy Adam O’Grady acknowledged that while most tax practitioners are highly compliant with their tax affairs, a minority fail to meet their obligations.

“Most tax enforcement groups are very compliant; if they have debts they have made arrangements with us. Unfortunately, there is a small minority who largely ignore payment or repayment obligations, and in many cases that’s what we do.” “We’re also seeing poor accommodation across that agency’s customer base,” O’Grady said.

“That concerns us and is something we want to address not only with the customer’s behavior but also with the agent’s behavior and how their attitude towards some of these issues is reflected in the customer base.”