There are around 3.8 million small businesses, including 1.6 million sole traders in Australia. They employ around 5.5 million people and contribute $380bn to the economy. Small business is also in debt to the ATO to the tune of $15bn.
This tax time, the ATO has stated they are looking closely at taxpayers:
- setting up or changing to a company structure
- claiming motor vehicle expenses
- who may not be correctly apportioning between personal and business use.
There are a multitude of data-matching programs and benchmarks to catch out those attempting to rort the system.
For wealthy groups and medium businesses, the focus is on structuring to avoid tax:
- international risk – international profit shifting and corporate restructuring
- inappropriate arrangements that seek to extract profits or capital without the right amount of tax being paid
- high risk trust arrangements attempting to gain advantage beyond ordinary trust arrangements or tax planning associated with genuine business or family dealings.
If the ATO suspect there is a problem, you may be contacted to justify why decisions were made to structure your affairs or the affairs of your company in a particular way.
