The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has teachers, engineers and mechanics in its sights this year, advising that it plans to audit large claims from these professions for the 2009-2010 financial year.
Individuals in these professions are advised to seek guidance to ensure their 2009-2010 tax paperwork will pass being audited especially if claiming deductions.
“This financial year is almost over and the ATO has advised it is targeting engineers and teachers – two occupations Personal Tax Specialists concentrates on. We will ensure our teacher clients have a professional tax return prepared so they know there is nothing to worry about if they are audited,” said Personal Tax Specialists co-founders Tracey Collins.
For the 2010-2011 financial year Tax Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo has indicated outlining refund fraud, the cash economy, employer obligations, wealthy Australians and tax secrecy havens are the top priorities for the ATO.
“This year, we will data match more than 500 million transactions to ensure taxpayers are declaring their income, including from bank accounts, investments, overseas transfers and property transactions,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.
“We have new risk filters and upgraded technology in place to better detect incorrect or fraudulent refund claims this year.
“We will crack down on businesses using cash transactions to hide income and evade tax, using benchmarks for more than 100 industries and reviewing or auditing the activities of more than 26,000 micro businesses.
“We will also focus heavily on employers – ensuring they lodge their business activity statements on time, meet their pay as you go withholding obligations and make correct super payments to employees.
“This year we expect to take action on more than 17,500 employee complaints about unpaid super. We will undertake 800 compliance reviews of business in industries showing a pattern of non-compliance including road freight transport, automotive repair and electrical services.” he said.