The Australian Taxation Office is offering additional support to help businesses during this difficult time.
Lodgement & Payment
Super Payments
By law The Australian taxation Office is unable to vary or change the contribution due date or waive the super guarantee charge.
If you lodge your Superannuation guarantee charge statement to The Australian Taxation Office within one month of the quarterly due date, you can avoid penalties. If you cannot pay the full amount there are payment options available to you including setting up a payment plan.
For further information please see the following links:
- Super for employers – Employers affected by disaster
- Super for employers – Missed and late payments
- More time to lodge, pay and respond
- Support in difficult times
- Support for small businesses
Payment plans
If you are an individual or a business that has been affect by COVID 19 and you are having difficulty meeting your tax liabilities you can contact The Australian Taxation Office to organise a payment plan. If your business already has a payment plan in place the ATO can work with you to adjust your repayments. If you are an individual with a payment plan in place the ATO can, suspend, vary or cancel their payment plan. If you contact the ATO to discuss any outstanding tax liabilities they can ensure that you are not charged interest on the outstanding debt whilst you are affected by COVID 19.
Remitting interest & penalties
Individuals & businesses that have been affected by COVID 19 may be able to have interest and penalties incurred after 23rd January 2020 remitted.
If the interest or penalties were applied prior to the 23rd of January 2020 you should still contact the ATO as they can:
- consider whether your circumstances before 23 January 2020 would make a remission of interest or penalties appropriate
- arrange to stop interest being charged while you are affected by COVID-19, and for the duration of a payment plan if you put one in place.
Please see the following links for further information:
Varying your PAYG instalments
If you are required to pay pay as you go instalments then you can vary your PAYG Instalments on your activity statement if you have been adversely affected by COVID 19.
The ATO will not apply interest charges or penalties on varied instalments that relate to the 2021-2022 income year, when reasonable care has been taken to estimate your end of year tax liability.
This also applies to 30 June ordinary balancers for the 2022 income year and any entities that may have been granted a substituted accounting period (SAP). For entities with a SAP, the variation must relate to instalments made within the 2022 income year.
It is wise to review your tax position on a regular basis. Your PAYG instalments can be varied as your situation changes.
If an error has been made in working out your PAYG instalment, it can be corrected by lodging a revised activity statement or varying following instalments.
If you are having difficulty paying your PAYG instalment you should still lodge your notice and call The ATO to discuss a payment arrangement.
The following links may also be useful:
- Correcting PAYG instalments
- How to vary your PAYG instalments
- Varying your PAYG instalments due to COVID-19
Changing your GST reporting cycle
If you currently report quarterly and you have a refund owing, changing to monthly reporting allows you to get quicker access to GST refunds that you are entitled to. Prior to making the changes you should be aware that:
- changing your GST reporting cycle doesn’t mean you have to change your PAYG withholding reporting cycle – you can manage this by specifying the roles you are changing
- you will need to tell The ATO in the first month of the relevant quarter so you can start your new cycle from that quarterly period (otherwise, the new cycle will take effect from the start of your next quarter)
- once you choose to report and pay GST monthly, you must keep reporting monthly for 12 months before you can elect to revert to quarterly reporting
- if you’re registered for fuel tax credits and change your GST reporting from quarterly to monthly, you will also need to claim your fuel tax credits monthly.
To change your GST reporting cycle you can contact your tax or BAS agent, make the changes in the Business Portal or Online services for Business or phone 13 28 66.
If you GST turnover is more than $20 million you must pay and report monthly.
Deferring GST payments for importers
If you are an importer and registered for GST you may be able to defer your payments of GST on all taxable importations to Australia. This will allow you to defer payment until the first activity statement lodged after the goods are imported.
This means that if you apply in the second or third month of a quarter, we will update your lodgment cycle from quarterly to monthly. This will take effect from the first month of that quarter (July, October, January or April). You will need to lodge all the monthly activity statements for that quarter.
This will give you quicker access to any GST refunds you are entitled to.
See also:
- How to apply for Deferred GST
Offshore providers of low-value goods, services and digital products
Offshore providers of low-value goods, services and digital products
If you supply Australia with digital products or low value goods as a limited registration entity, there is a possibility you may find it difficult to meet your Australian GST obligations.
If you are a Limited Registration Entity and re experiencing difficulties The ATO can help you with
- lodging your GST return if you are having problems accessing our simplified system
- paying the GST you have collected from your customers if you can’t use your usual method
- arranging a deferral of your obligation to lodge a GST return and pay the GST in some situations
- requesting remission of any interest or penalties that may have been applied.
Statement of tax record
If you are a business tendering for an Australian Government contract over $4 million and receive an unsatisfactory statement of tax record, The ATO will:
- contact you to discuss options to correct this
- where possible, assist you in fast-tracking corrections such as obtaining a lodgment deferral or payment plan.
Apply for administrative relief for Division 7A minimum yearly repayments
Some borrowers may be facing challenges in making minimum yearly repayments (MYR) on their Division 7A loans by the end of the lender’s 2019–20 or 2020–21 income year. If you are concerned that you are unable to meet your repayments, you may be able to apply for an extension of time under the streamlined application process. You must make up the shortfall of your MYR by 30 June of the following year.
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