Obligations to which the amnesty applies

The amnesty applies to overdue income tax returns, business activity statements and FBT returns that were originally due between 1 December 2019 and 28 February 2022.

For many small business taxpayers, these would equate to:

• Income tax returns for the 2018–19 and 2019–20 income years
• Business activity statements (quarterly) for the December quarter 2019 to the December quarter 2021
• FBT returns for the 2019–20 and 2020–21 FBT years

The amnesty period

The amnesty runs from 1 June 2023 to 31 December 2023. To be eligible for the amnesty, the overdue obligation must be lodged within that timeframe.

Eligible small business taxpayers

To be eligible for the amnesty, the small business must be an entity with an aggregated turnover of less than $10 million at the time the original lodgment was due.

The amnesty does not apply to:

• private owned groups, or
• individuals controlling over $5 million of net wealth.

Amnesty benefits

Eligible small business taxpayers that lodge eligible overdue forms within the amnesty period will have any associated failure to lodge (FTL) penalties remitted.

The remission will happen automatically and the taxpayer will not need to separately request a remission.

The amnesty does not apply to any interest charges which may apply to overdue payments or to other administrative penalties such as penalties associated with the Taxpayer Payments Reporting System.

What should I do now?

You should speak to your accountant to better understand how the impact of the ATO tax amnesty program.

Please feel free to contact us if you’d like more information about utilising the ATO tax amnesty program.