ATO to be given powers to tell credit reporting bureaus when small businesses don’t pay debts

The federal government has released draft legislation to allow the Australian Taxation Office to tell credit reporting bureaus that a business is not actively trying to repay an outstanding tax debt. Minister for Revenue and Financial Services Kelly O’Dwyer says the change will “remove the unfair advantage obtained by businesses that do not repay overdue […]

Emma Koehn 12 January, 2018

The federal government has released draft legislation to allow the Australian Taxation Office to tell credit reporting bureaus that a business is not actively trying to repay an outstanding tax debt.

Minister for Revenue and Financial Services Kelly O’Dwyer says the change will “remove the unfair advantage obtained by businesses that do not repay overdue tax debts”.

Originally outlined in the 2016-17 Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the government estimated in December 2016 that the policy would cost $27 million over four years to implement, but would produce a revenue gain of $63 million over the forward estimates.