Is the tax office clamping down hard on our SMEs?

By Peter Roberts

Just when manufacturing SMEs are really doing it tough there is anecdotal evidence that the Australian Tax Office is coming down hard on the struggling sector.

Two industry representative groups report anecdotal evidence of formerly accommodating tax office staff changing their attitude in the past week…for the worse.

“One minute it was ‘I am your case manager and here to help’,”one industry association boss told @AuManufacturing.

“The next minute it is ‘you have got two days to get the information that you said you would’.”

Companies cannot understand why this pressure is being added to SME owners already battling falling orders and dealing with the human problem of their loyal staff.

“Is the tax office robbing Peter to pay Paul?

“Have they been given orders to get cash in the door.”

These sort of stories unfortunately do fit in with my own experience from companies I know of from normal times, of a tonne of bricks being dumped by the tax office on struggling SMEs.

While multi-national corporations get away with paying no tax year after year, the stories of tax office bullying of SMEs are heartbreaking at the best of times.

Right now in the middle of a crisis, they are simply unacceptable.

Picture: ATO

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