Black economy recommendations will impact day-to-day business

Editor: Recently issued draft legislation has focused on introducing new measures to manage the growing cash economy (i.e., the ‘black economy’) in light of the Black Economy Taskforce recommendations and recent Federal Budget announcements. Two of these key recommendations are outlined below.

Removing tax deductions for PAYG failure

The Government is currently considering removing tax deductions where businesses fail to comply with their PAYG withholding obligations for payments to employees and contractors from 1 July 2019.

Specifically, deductions are proposed to be denied for these types of payments where the payer has failed to either:

• comply with their obligations in relation to withholding from these payments; or
• notify the ATO of the withholding amount (i.e., via their BAS).

Interestingly, deductions will only be denied if no withholding took place or no notification has been made.

That is, incorrect amounts withheld or reported to the ATO will not impact a taxpayer’s entitlement to deductions.

Further expansion of the taxable payments reporting system (‘TPRS’)

The TPRS was introduced for the first time in the 2013 income year with respect to businesses in the building and construction industry, requiring the reporting of total payments made to contractors for building and construction services each year.

The taxable payments annual report is due by 28 August each year.

Legislation is currently being considered by Parliament to extend the TPRS to the cleaning and courier industries from the 2019 income year.

Furthermore, draft legislation has now been released to further expand the TPRS to the following industries from the 2020 income year:

• security providers and investigation services;
• road freight transport; and
• computer system design and related services.