Those of you lucky enough to have a PTY LTD that predates the GST will know about the Deferred Tax Instalments, or what the ATO refers to as 'deferred coin'. When the GST came in, companies were given the option of deferring their 1999-2000 tax debt and paying it off over 5 years interest free. This was because they were changing from yearly to quarterly payments. We chose to defer it.
Recently, we decided to wind up our company. I called the ATO to ask for a payout figure. They told me $590, representing 2 deferred payments of $295 each. We sent them a cheque for that amount and assumed that was it. Four weeks later, we received a statement stating that we owed $2065 and had two weeks to pay it or there would be an interest charge.
Slightly miffed, I contacted the ATO to find out where the $2065 had come from, since we'd been told that $590 would settle the debt. Nobody could explain it, so I lodged a complaint. Today they called me and explained how their system works.
What they do is they post an amount to your 'Integrated Client Account' each quarter representing the deferred payment. So immediately after you make a payment, your 'balance' is zero but then 3 months later they post another amount (in our case $295), giving you 2 weeks to pay it or there is an interest charge. The people on the account enquiries line do not have access to your 'deferred balance' so when they look at your account balance, they only see the amounts that have been posted.
When we told them by letter that we were winding up the company, they posted all the remaining deferred payments to our account, hence the sudden $2065 balance and two weeks to pay. I explained to the nice lady that this was not necessarily clear to the average man or woman on the street and that, when one rings to get a payout figure, one expects to be given the actual outstanding amount. Apparently it is all my fault because I did not ask the right question. I introduced the term 'reasonable person' to the conversation but that cut no cheese with her. We argued around in circles for awhile but she eventually agreed to 'escalate' the issue for possible revision of help desk scripts. I wont hold my breath.
So let this be a warning to you. The ATO is not always forth coming with full and complete information. Do not believe ANYTHING they tell you. You can assume that they will come to you with their hand out at anytime down the track. I asked her how could I be sure that there wont be anything else lurking to bite us on the bum and her reply could be paraphrased to 'you cannot'.
Fricken' ATO
