The ATO has revealed that they are using data from its Taxable Payments Reporting System (TPRS) to ensure that more than $172 billion of payments to Contractors have been properly declared.
Businesses that use Contractors in the road freight, cleaning, courier, building and construction, information technology, security, investigation, or surveillance services have been required to report contractor payments to the ATO via the Taxable Payments Annual Reporting System, better known as TPAR’s.
With more than 158,000 businesses reporting contractor payments in the 2019-20 financial year, the ATO is ensuring Contractor payments are properly declared, this means that the ATO is contacting Contract workers who may have not properly declared their income.
If the ATO discovers any discrepancies in your tax return, they will be contacting you or your Accountant, to check that payments have been fully reported on your tax return. If you have forgotten to declare or have under-declared your income from Contract work, you will be urged to lodge an amendment or speak to your tax advisor about resolving this.
We also want to note that the ATO’s data analytics and the TPAR reports combined, create a sophisticated data matching program for them to track down undeclared money, if you are a contract worker, you are required to declare all income received.
If you believe you may have made a mistake on your tax return or forgotten to declare income, please contact your Accountant to discuss amending your tax return.