Assisting clients with Shortfall Penalties in ATO matters
Overview
With increase audit activity, shortfall penalties have increased. It is important you understand the rules, risks and options for remission.
The tax code requires taxpayers to lodge various returns and statements. Where there is a tax shortfall arising from those lodgements, then the ATO can impose different levels of what are termed ‘shortfall penalties’. The levels vary based upon the perceived level of conduct that led to the shortfall arising, but may also be affected by mitigating conduct (voluntary disclosures) or aggravating factors (obstruction) and may even be partly or fully remitted in some situations.
If practitioners don’t understand the shortfall penalty rules, how to argue about their client’s circumstances and conduct, when it may be wise to make a voluntary disclosure or the grounds for remission of those penalties, then this can lead to many adverse impacts for the practitioner and their clients.
This session is intended to give tax practitioners, accountants and lawyers an improved understanding of the tax shortfall penalty regime and how it works in practice:
- History of ‘false or misleading statement’ penalties
- What is a tax shortfall?
- What about failure to report/lodge penalties?
- What constitutes ‘Reasonable care’?
- What constitutes ‘lack of reasonable care’?
- What constitutes ‘recklessness’?
- What constitutes ‘intentional disregard’?
- What about ‘reasonably arguable positions’?
- How can ‘voluntary disclosures’ change penalty rates’?
- What uplift factors can increase such penalties?
- Penalty remission power – s.298-20
- Objecting to shortfall penalties (and non-remission decisions)
- Litigating on penalty cases
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will gain an improved understanding of:
- Tax shortfall penalty regime
- Shortfall penalty remission power
- Challenging shortfall penalty decisions
Suited to:
Accountants, tax practitioners, BAS agents, lawyers and other practitioners serving small businesses, private groups and wealthy individuals.
This On Demand recording Includes:
- Recording of the Live Webinar, which can be viewed multiple times, for as long as required
- Presenters contact details for follow up questions
- CPD Quiz
- CPD Certificate
- CPD Report – Logged automatically
- PowerPoint Presentation
- Verbatim Transcript, with Searchability
- Supporting Documentation
Course syllabus
3 lessons
- Video – Assisting clients with Shortfall Penalties in ATO mattersVideo
- Feedback Survey QuestionsSurvey
- Knowledge QuizTest
Your presenter
Bruce CollinsTax Controversy Partners
is the founder and principal solicitor at Tax Controversy Partners Pty Limited, currently helping clients to resolve all types of tax issues with the ATO and SROs. Before moving into private practice in 2017, Bruce worked for over 35 years in the Tax Office, a third of this time as a Senior Executive in what is now Compliance & Engagement Group, covering most ATO functions. Bruce was the leader of the Technical & Case Leadership area in Private Wealth for several years prior to leaving the ATO, as well as having previously been the strategic, technical and compliance leader for many of the ATO’s audit programs. Bruce was the Senior Executive sponsor for many ATO compliance projects and processes dealing with shortfall penalties for specific clients and widely offered settlement matters.
Bruce has an Accounting Certificate (1989), a First-Class Honours Degree in Law (1995), a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (1996), a Masters of Taxation (2003) and a Masters of International Taxation (2006). Bruce is a Chartered Tax Advisor with the Tax Institute, a member of the Law Society of NSW, a member of the AICD and is both a member of the Law Council of Australia, their Tax Committee and is the current Chair of the Law Council SME Business Law Committee.