Posts Tagged TPRS

The ability of the Family Court to divide the assets owned personally by a couple – including superannuation – on a relationship breakdown is largely without question. A recent case has now shed further light on the ability of the Family Court to allocate responsibility for payment of the tax debts of either spouse.

A High Court decision in 2018, Commissioner of Taxation v Tomaras, confirmed that tax debts can be apportioned by the courts where a couple’s relationship has broken down. In that case, the wife had failed to pay her tax debts and was out of time to challenge the debt assessments. The husband had been declared bankrupt. As part of the property settlement proceedings, the wife asked the court to order that the husband should become the debtor who would have to pay the ATO.

The court found that one spouse could indeed be substituted for the other in relation to a tax debt like this, but it also confirmed this isn’t always appropriate. Given that the husband was bankrupt and there was no time left to challenge the debt assessments, the court did not exercise its powers to make him liable for the tax debts that had been assessed to the wife.

More recently, the case of Cao & Trong in 2022 further explored the Family Court’s powers in relation to tax debts. In this case, allocation of an amount in the region of $3.1 million was in dispute between the former spouses, the ATO and the Child Support Register.

The ATO was owed more than $7 million in unpaid tax, and in the end the court found that it was entitled to 100% of the disputed amount. In making this finding, the court said that the parties had enjoyed an opulent lifestyle while the debt was due to the ATO, and in fact this lifestyle was mainly possible because they avoided paying the large amounts they owed.

This recent finding is a timely reminder that the ATO can and will intervene in family law disputes to protect the revenue due to the Commonwealth, and that the courts will actively ensure the rights of the ATO are protected and enforced.

As a part of the Federal Government’s strategy to combat the tax compliance risks posed by the sharing economy, it has passed into law new requirements for operators of electronic distribution platforms to provide information to the ATO on transactions made through their platforms.

An “electronic distribution platform” is one that delivers services through electronic communication (ie over the internet, including through applications, websites or other software) and allows entities to make supplies available to end-user consumers through the platform. A service isn’t considered an electronic distribution platform if it only advertises or creates awareness of possible supplies online, operates as a payment platform or serves a communication function.

Examples of sharing economy electronic platform operators include Uber, Airbnb, Car Next Door, Menulog, Airtasker and Freelancer.

Electronic platform operators will soon be required to regularly provide transaction information to the ATO through the Taxable Payments Reporting System (TPRS). The information obtained will be used in ATO data-matching to help identify entities that may not be meeting their tax obligations.