The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2016-17 (MYEFO) announced that from 1 July 2017, the ATO will disclose tax debt information of businesses who have not effectively engaged with the ATO to credit reporting bureaus.
The new measure is aimed at enhancing the integrity of the tax system and ensuring businesses who are not compliant do not gain an unfair competitive advantage over those businesses who are.
The ATO will initially pass on unpaid debts from businesses with an Australian Business Number and with a tax debt of more than $10,000 which is at least 90 days overdue.
In addition, the Government will provide $1.6 million to establish a Black Economy Taskforce to develop an innovative, whole-of-government policy response to this problem. Black economy activities disadvantage honest taxpayers, undermine the integrity of Australia’s tax and welfare systems and reduce the amount of revenue collected by governments.
If you’re not close to retiring, you may not be thinking about your super or where it is. Even if you are a way off from retiring, you should be keeping track of where your super has gone. $17.5 billion of super was lost in 2017-18, $420 million down from the previous year. If you are not paying attention to your super contributions, accounts and insurances, you may have lost super. You may also have unintentionally lost track of super if you have ever changed your name, address, job or lived overseas.
It is not uncommon for people to have multiple super accounts they have acquired over the years of working at different companies. Having multiple unused accounts can result in high fees that drain your untouched super or you could lose track of it completely. It is in your best interest to consolidate all super into one account that suits your retirement goals. When closing unused accounts, you should be mindful of any termination fees, insurance policies, investment options, and ongoing service fees.
If you have lost track of your super it may be held by either your super fund as a lost account or as an ATO-held account. The easiest way to consolidate super is through the myGov website, linking the ATO to records of your super funds
