The ATO has released a report on findings from consultation on its paper “Proposed changes to penalties for small businesses and individuals”.
The ATO is proposing to offer “one chance” before applying a penalty to eligible small businesses and individuals for false and misleading statements and for failure to take reasonable care failure to lodge on time.
Key themes from the consultation process were as follows:
- • the majority supported a one chance approach, however, some were concerned about how it would work in practice
- • overwhelmingly, respondents suggested a reset period should apply
- • many respondents thought that some taxpayers should be excluded, such as those with a poor compliance history, and
- • most respondents thought the one chance approach would positively increase their perception of fairness of the system.
The ATO says it is considering the feedback and will share more information in the future.
