The amnesty applies to tax obligations that were originally due between December 1, 2019 and February 28, 2022 and runs from June 1 to December 31.
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 lodgement was due.
Eligible small businesses can lodge their eligible overdue forms and the ATO will then proactively remit any associated failure to lodge (FTL) penalties.
ATO Assistant Commissioner Emma Tobias urged small businesses to take advantage of the amnesty to get back on track with their tax obligations if they had fallen behind.
She said the past few years had been tough for many small businesses, with the pandemic and natural disasters having a significant impact and the lodging of ATO forms may have slipped down the list of priorities.
“But it is important to get back on track with tax obligations,” she said.
“All you need to do is lodge your outstanding tax returns or activity statements and we’ll take care of the FTL penalty remission from our end. You might see an FTL penalty on your account for a short period of time, but don’t worry, we will remit it.”
Ms Tobias also noted that outstanding lodgements could be an early indicator that a small business was not actively engaged with the tax system, which could be a red flag.
“We encourage all businesses to lodge any overdue forms even if they are outside the eligibility period,” she said.
“While forms outside the amnesty eligibility criteria will attract FTL penalties, the ATO will consider your circumstances and may remit such penalties on a case-by-case basis.
“We want to make this process easy and encourage small businesses to do the right thing. If you have a registered tax or BAS agent, now is a good time to reach out to them to make sure you are up to date with your tax affairs.”
