Included in that is an increase of around $200 million per year for four years to the Tax Avoidance Taskforce that has also been extended by a further 12 months to July 2025.
The aim of the increased funding is to allow the taskforce to “support the ATO to pursue new priority areas of observed business tax risks, complementing the ongoing focus on multinational enterprises and large public and private businesses”.
The government expects the measure to increase receipts by $2.8 billion and increase payments by $1.1 billion over the forward estimates.
The ATO will also be given additional resources to extend its Personal Income Taxation Compliance Program for another two years, from 1 July 2023.
It was also announced that the Personal Income Taxation Compliance Program, which focuses on taxpayers who overclaim deductions or incorrectly report income, will receive an extra $80.3 million and a two-year extension that is expected to deliver $674.4 million in increased receipts to the government, as well as increased payments of $80.3 million, over four years.
The ATO’s Shadow Economy Program has been extended until July 2026 and will allow the ATO to “continue a strong and co-ordinated response to target shadow economy activity, protect revenue and level the playing field for those businesses that are following the rules”.
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has also been given $30.4 million over four years to “increase compliance investigations into high-risk practitioners and unregistered preparers” in order for the TPB to “use new risk engines to better identify tax practitioners who engage in poor and unlawful tax advice, to improve tax compliance and raise industry standards”.
This is expected to increase receipts to the government’s coffers by $81.9 million, and increase payments by $30.8 million over the four-year period.
Other tax measures in the federal budget include:
- A plan to introduce legislation to clarify that digital currencies, including bitcoin, will continue to be excluded from the Australian income tax treatment of foreign currency
- Cuts to taxes on electric vehicles (read more here)
- Aligning the tax treatment of off-market share buybacks undertaken by listed public companies with the treatment of on-market share buybacks (effective 7.30pm, 25 October 2022)
- Making select state and territory COVID-19 business payments and grants non-assessable, non-exempt for income tax purposes
- The government’s previous announced measures to tackle multinational tax avoidance
