Review: Aspects of the Australian Taxation Office’s administration of JobKeeper and Boosting Cash Flow payments for new businesses
Reviews and reports
The Inspector-General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman (IGTO) conducted complaint investigations (commencing in June 2020) in response to concerns raised by or on behalf of new small businesses –
individuals and entities. Most complainants were concerned that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) had decided they were ineligible to receive the Boosting Cash Flow (BCF) and/or JobKeeper (JK)
payments because either:
- sales had not been reported in their Business Activity Statement (BAS) as lodged (or to be lodged) before 12 March 2020; or
- they were not required to lodge a BAS at all.
Concerns were similarly raised by the accounting, tax and business professional bodies, Members of Parliament and in the media. Professional bodies referred their members to the IGTO’s complaint
investigation service.
This report provides some background to our complaint investigations and some insight into how independent investigation of these complaints improves the tax administration system for the benefit of all taxpayers, tax practitioners and other entities. This report may also help minimise issues arising in the design of future tax administrative measures, including those which deliver fiscal support measures to the wider Australian community.
We also made observations on the underlying issues which were identified during the complaint investigations. The context of the extraordinary and unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Australian jobs and businesses, as well as the exceptional ATO response in providing economic support in the form of JK and BCF payments to many Australians, is an important backdrop to these observations. However, the opportunity to learn from the crisis should not be missed.