"The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will implement a series of administrative measures to assist Australians experiencing financial difficulty as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan is encouraging businesses impacted by the coronavirus to get in touch with the ATO to discuss relief options.

“We know that many businesses and communities are being heavily affected by the challenging economic conditions created by the outbreak of COVID-19,” he said.

“The ATO will work shoulder-to-shoulder with businesses to assist them through this difficult period and do what we can to ease the pressure.

“Once you contact us, we’ll tailor a support plan for your needs and circumstances.

“Support measures could include deferral of some payments, quicker access to GST refunds, and options to enter low interest payment plans for existing or future tax debts.”

We understand this is a time of significant uncertainty and that we will need to be flexible in how we help businesses.

Options available to assist businesses impacted by COVID-19 include:

• Deferring by up to six months the payment date of amounts due through the business activity statement (including PAYG instalments), income tax assessments, fringe benefits tax assessments and excise
• Allow businesses on a quarterly reporting cycle to opt into monthly GST reporting in order to get quicker access to GST refunds they may be entitled to
• Allowing businesses to vary Pay As You Go (PAYG) instalment amounts to zero for the March 2020 quarter. Businesses that vary their PAYG instalment to zero can also claim a refund for any instalments made for the September 2019 and December 2019 quarters
• Remitting any interest and penalties, incurred on or after 23 January 2020, that have been applied to tax liabilities
• Working with affected businesses to help them pay their existing and ongoing tax liabilities by allowing them to enter into low interest payment plans.

Employers will still need to meet their ongoing super guarantee obligations for their employees.

Outside of business, the ATO will also work with individuals experiencing financial hardship, and their tax agents, and will apply appropriate tax relief measures for serious and exceptional circumstances, such as where people cannot pay for food or accommodation.

Unlike the bushfire relief measures, which applied automatically to particular geographic areas, assistance measures for those impacted by COVID-19 will not be automatically implemented."


Now that this has come through, I will begin the process of working through and detailing how we can begin to access the resultant benefits that arise from this.

 It's worth mentioning that in reading these measures I have one major questions that will need further clarification from the ATO and that is:

If there are refunding already paid PAYG instalments from Sept, Dec & Mar Qtrs, what is going to happen when we lodge the 2020 tax returns? I cannot imagine that they will wipe out the liability but rather they will make the payment 6 month later than it would have normally been due (From the 1st point above).

As the majority of clients have a 15 May 2021 deadline for the lodgement and payment of the 2020 tax returns, this will mean a revised due date of 15 Novemeber. 

We also have to take into consideration what trading will be like for the last quarter of 2020(April to Jun'20) and how this will affect the overall result of 2020. The potential losses in this period may wipe out any accumulated profit from the July '19 to Mar'20 period. 

I will keep abreast of the process of potentially claiming the refund of already paid PAYG instalments and then communicate the process to you to see if you would like to take advantage of this.

For the other measures, including moving to a monthly GST lodgement program, remitting of already applied penalties I can work with you as required to get these in place.

All the best and stay safe.

George
0405 306 111
george@finaro.com.au