Fears ATO will hand over small businesses to credit agencies 'willy nilly'

"The federal government announced its plans to enable the ATO to disclose small business tax debt information to credit reporting agencies in its midyear budget update.

The measure will initially apply to businesses with Australian Business Numbers and tax debts of more than $10,000 that are at least 90 days overdue and is set to commence on July 1 this year.

"We have to be really careful that the ATO doesn't end up creating a worse situation for small business," Ms Carnell told the Senate estimates committee."I don't think it's the ATO's role to make SMEs business situations visible to third parties. You'd have to be pretty careful about it to make sure you are right." " Read more

Cara Waters Brisbane Times 6 Mar 2017