ATO heats up their audit activity - targetting privately owned and wealthy groups

With compliance activities having been deferred at the height of COVID-19, it appears likely that the ATO will now start to ramp up its auditing activities. It seems that the interest in privately owned and wealthy groups of more than $10million, or controlled wealth of more than $5million, is a result of recent tax gap reports which highlighted a gap in the sector worth $772million.

There are reports that the ATO will look to its Top 55 and Next 5,000 programs to address the short fall - as well as take an industry-by-industry approach following COVID-19 as it appears that these groups have been less afflicted by the pandemic.

So the message is: be ready and ensure that appropriate steps are being taken to comply with tax obligations.