ATO Audit Activity Increasing

You may have seen in the media that the ATO is currently increasing their audit of JobKeeper and Cash Flow Boost Claims. If businesses have made a genuine attempt to do the right thing, the ATO are taking a pragmatic approach.  This is due to how fluid the rules were early on and very open to interpretation due to the quick implementation of the COVID schemes.

In some cases, it has been found that an innocent error resulted in overpayment, particularly with JobKeeper, but the overpayment was passed onto the employee in good faith. In cases similar to these, no action is taken, however in some instances, there have been calculated steps to manufacture claims & the ATO will take much firmer action on these situations.

To be safe, you need to ensure there is a defendable document trail that supports both JobKeeper & Cashflow boost claims. If we have been processing Jobkeeper on your behalf, we have put together a file for your business with the necessary JobKeeper documentation. The ATO have a page on ‘Keeping JobKeeper Fair’ which focuses on the areas they are aiming to look into such as claiming incorrect decline in turnover (15% decline where 30% should be taken), claiming employees when the correct funds were not passed onto them by the due date and claiming the Tier 1 rate on the extension when an employee generally worked less than 20 hours average per week.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your JobKeeper or Cashflow boost claim, feel free to contact us.