The Tax Office will begin issuing penalties for overdue taxable payments annual reports (TPARs) from 22 March for businesses that haven’t lodged their TPAR from 2024 or previous years and that have been sent three reminder letters about their overdue TPAR.
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If a business pays contractors for taxable payments reporting system (TPRS) services, it may need to lodge a TPAR by 28 August each year, the ATO said.
As part of the taxable payments reporting system, businesses must lodge a taxable payments annual report to report payments made to contractors that provide certain services.
These services include building and construction, courier, cleaning, information technology, road freight and security, investigation or surveillance.
“Last year, we issued more than 11,000 businesses with approximately $18 million in penalties,” the ATO said.
The ATO said if businesses don’t need to lodge a TPAR, they could submit a non-lodgment advice (NLA) form.
“If you no longer pay contractors, you can also use this form to indicate that you won’t need to lodge a TPAR in the future,” it said.
“TPAR data helps us identify contractors who under-report their income. This lets us level the playing field for honest businesses.”
In a recent update, the ATO said it would use TPAR data to identify contractors omitting or misreporting income in their tax returns through its data-matching programs.
"Through data matching, we are seeing some contractors incorrectly reporting or omitting contractor income."
The ATO warned contractors that where it suspects a contractor has omitted TPRS income on their tax return, it may contact them or their tax professional to request them to amend the tax return.
"[We may also] contact you or your tax professional via phone call to better understand your circumstances and potentially request you amend your tax return."
Miranda Brownlee
AUTHOR
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.