Taxpayers’ Responsibility
In Australia, the individual taxpayer or organisation is responsible for following their legal obligations to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). This is required by the legislation administered by the Commissioner of Taxation (‘Commissioner’), whose role is to ensure the compliance of taxation laws with penalties and prosecutions for non-compliance.
The Main Taxation Offences
The main legislation concerning taxation offences are the Income Tax Assessment Act of 1936, the Taxation Administration Act of 1953, the Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment of 1986 and the Sales Tax Assessment of 1992 and a New Tax System (Goods and Services TAX) Act 1999.
More specifically, taxation offences include:
- Making false and misleading statements
- Failing to correctly keep accounting records
- Failing to lodge taxation returns or activity statements (BAS)
- Failing to pay tax or remit the tax deduction of employees.
