To deal with the financial and income issues due to the pandemic, ATO Australia is offering additional support to help you during this difficult time. There are many lodgements, payment, instalments, and record options available to help you in COVID-19. Some of these include:

• Super Payments

According to the law, all employers need to meet the super guarantee obligation for the employees and the contribution due date varying or waiving the super guarantee charge is not possible.

ATO can help you in avoiding additional penalties by lodging a superannuation guarantee charge statement within a month of the quarterly due date. If you are not able to pay in full, it has the payment option to support you, such as setting up a payment plan.

• Payment Plans

You can contact the ATO for setting up a payment plan for businesses that have been affected by the pandemic. This plan allows you to pay in instalments and also helps you in paying your existing and ongoing tax liabilities.

If you have a payment plan already in place, ATO can work with you to adjust your repayments to make them more manageable for your situation. You’ll not be charged any interest on outstanding debt.

• Remitting Interest & Penalties

To ease your financial worries, ATO is considering remitting the interest and penalties incurred after 23 January 2020. Even if they are incurred before this date, your circumstances will be considered to make the remission of the interest or penalties.

An arrangement can be made to stop charging the interest while your business is affected by COVID-19, and for the duration of a payment plan if you put one in place.

• Deferring GST Payments for Importers

Another move the ATO has made is to defer the GST payment for the importers on all taxable importations into Australia. This means instead of paying upfront, an importer can defer the payment until the first activity statement is lodged.

When an application for deferred GST is lost, the ATO will backdate the GST cycle to manage your cash flow. This means the lodgement cycle will be updated quarterly to monthly and will come into effect from the first month of the quarter.

• Offshore Providers of Low-value Goods, Services & Digital Products

If you are an off-shore supplier of low-value goods or digital products to Australia as a limited registration entity (LRE), we can ease your financial worries by helping you with:

• Lodging your GST return
• Paying the GST you have collected from your customers
• Arranging a deferral of your obligation to lodge a GST return
• Paying the GST in situations requesting remission of interest or penalties

So, these were some ways the ATO is offering additional support to businesses facing a tough time to meet their financial goals for the income year 2021-2022. If you need any professional assistance or guidance to take you through these processes, our registered tax consultants at KPG Taxation are here to assist you.