Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. With our economy recently recording the weakest annual financial year growth in years, small to medium sized family owned businesses are struggling. Yet these business owners from North Sydney and beyond, and tax experts, have raised serious concerns with me about the Australian Taxation Office's aggressive debt-enforcement action increasingly targeting them. Treasurer: will your government issue guidance or a mandate to the ATO to ensure debt-collection processes targeting small to medium sized businesses are conducted in a way that recognises tough economic times?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for North Sydney for raising the genuine concerns that I know she has about the ATO's debt-collection activities. I also acknowledge the member for Warringah, who raises these matters with me from time to time as well. This is something that I speak with the Commissioner of Taxation about from time to time, because I understand that in the context of an economy where growth is slow and subdued, and consumption is weak—particularly when it comes to discretionary spending—a lot of small businesses, like a lot of Australians, are doing it tough. We do need to make sure that the ATO does its important work, which is recovering tax debts so that we make sure there is a level playing field between the people who do their best to keep up to date and those who are unable to. We need to make sure that there's an even playing field. But, whenever these activities are undertaken, we need to make sure that they are undertaken in the most sensitive and understanding way that they can be. My advice to small businesses who are in the situation that the member for North Sydney describes, is to engage as early as possible with the ATO to come to the arrangements that they need in order to keep doing the really important work that they do in our economy.

From our point of view, we will continue doing what we can to support small businesses, whether it's through a bit of help with energy bills, tax breaks or in other ways. We are big supporters of small business. We know it's a tough time for them and we want the ATO to recognise that as well.