A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

ATO visiting newsagents to audit business records

I have been contacted by a representative of the ATO who is visiting newsagencies to review record keeping of sales information. This person contacted me as the owner of Tower Systems seeking information on records collected by the software. They did not identify the state in which they working or specific businesses they were targeting.

You’d be a fool to try and manipulate your business records or computer stored data in order to avoid paying tax.

In the 1990s some newsagents with whom I had no relationship used technology with a tax avoidance back door to systematically under report income. The actions of few gave our channel a bad reputation back then.

Make sure your processes and record keeping would withstand scrutiny.

6 likes
Newsagency management

Join the discussion

  1. Chris

    I have audit insurance, it is $1100 approx a year but covers the expense etc with an ATO audit. Gives peace of mind.

    0 likes

  2. Carol

    I was audited a couple of years ago covering a three month period that they selected. It really was not that painful thanks to the fact I had not long installed the Tower POS and had good records. It turned out we did not fit the benchmarking as the accountant had shown Lotto income wrong. They didn’t visit the shop but asked for three months of info be sent to them. I was happy with my treatment.

    0 likes

  3. eric

    i got confused now regarding bus tickets sales, before we declare the gross purchased, now he told me just to delcare the commission only. should i just declare the commission only or the whole gross turnover of bus ticket sale? anyone can help me. my accountant confused me now. if you declrae the gross sales it will be out of ATO newsagencty benchmarks 73%-81% since we sell $1 million worth of bustickets

    0 likes

  4. Carol

    I tried to comment here and system told me I was duplicating something I had previously said and would not let me post?

    0 likes

  5. Mark Fletcher

    Carol it will do that if you click to post a comment you gave posted.

    1 likes

  6. susan

    Eric for the products you just get the commission like myki tickets, phonecards or mobile recharge there is 2 approach: you declare just the commission because you have to pay GST on your income which is the commission. otherwise if you declare the whole amount of the sale then you can claim what they debit from your account as deductions.

    0 likes

  7. eric

    Thank you Susan

    0 likes

  8. Carmen

    Chris- Might pay to shop around we also have Audit Insurance. However we only pay $405 per year. Looks like someone is ripping you off big time.

    2 likes

  9. Chris

    Who is that with Carmen? We have 6 business entities covered plus 3 personal ATO accounts covered as well for the price we pay. Ours is with Audit Services P/L. Hopefully you have more than 1 business covered for your $405 or unfortunately it may be you getting ripped off.

    0 likes

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Reload Image