New laws have passed allowing the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to disclose your business tax debt information to registered credit reporting bureaus (CRBs).

The ATO can only disclose tax debt information of a business to a CRB if the business meets all of the following criteria:

• it has an Australian business number (ABN), and is not an excluded entity; and
• it has tax debts, and these tax debts amount to more than $100,000 overdue by over 90 days; and
• it is not effectively engaging with the ATO to manage its tax debt; and
• the Inspector-General of Taxation is not considering an ongoing complaint about the proposed reporting of the entity’s tax debt information.

The ATO will notify a business in writing if they meet the reporting criteria and give them 28 days to engage with them to avoid having tax debt information reported.

Businesses that are engaging with the ATO to manage their tax debts will not have their tax debt information reported to CRBs.

Pilot Partners can assist you in dealing with overdue ATO debt negotiations and can help identify the underlying cause for the overdue debts.

If you would like assistance in this area, please contact Bradley Hellen or Cameron Woodcroft on 07 3023 1300.