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Tax Debt Negotiation

We negotiate tax debt with the ATO on your behalf to achieve the best possible reduction of your tax debt.

No need to bury your head in the sand. There’s often a solution to unmanageable tax debt.

Getting tax debt help can be intimidating and even overwhelming.

Having debt with the ATO often carries unknowns. Concerns like
‘Will I lose my house?’ ‘Will I go bankrupt?’ ‘Will my business go under?’

The good news is that with expert guidance, it is almost always
manageable and there can be ways to reduce your tax debt. You may
even be entitled to a refund on interest and penalties.

To get the best result, you need experts in tax debt. Tax Assure are
specialists debt negotiators. We deal with the ATO on a daily basis, so we have a deep understanding of their behaviour and commercial priorities.

We are experienced in working with a range of different clients, both
individuals and businesses. As business owners and commercial people ourselves, we take care in catering to your specific circumstances and finding solutions that work for you.

We’ve helped countless clients negotiate a better deal with the ATO. We pride ourselves on helping our clients get the best possible outcomes for their tax debt and continuing to run businesses without the stress of ATO legal action. It starts with our expert analysis of your tax debt to find out if you could be paying less by reducing any interest and penalties or by negotiating a suitable payment arrangement.

Let us kick start the process of reducing your tax debt.

How we negotiate your tax debt reduction

1. Tax debt review

The first step to reducing your ATO debt is assessing your current circumstances. Once we receive the appropriate permissions, we contact the ATO on your behalf to understand your circumstances, such as the stage of the ATO’s legal action, any previous defaulted payment arrangements, the issue of legal warning letters, and any pending or imminent ATO legal action.

2. Tax debt resolution report

We provide you with a report detailing our strategy for achieving your ATO debt reduction objective, such as the reduction of GIC and penalties, the process, and the fees involved. This report will include what factors may affect your ability to negotiate. We offer fixed, success fees for tax debt negotiation: if we don’t achieve a tax debt reduction, you don’t pay.

3. Preparing an application

Once engaged, we undertake a more detailed investigation of your tax debt. This informs how we will prepare the required ATO application. Our approach takes into account the reasons that caused you to arrive at your debt position, and utilises our skills and experience to negotiate within the legal guidelines for what the ATO will consider to be an acceptable tax debt payment plan.

4. Outcome and review

Applications are typically prepared and lodged, and an outcome obtained within 6-8 weeks. However, if there is a relevant financing or legal deadline, we always work within those parameters and can achieve outcomes within 24-48 hours after receiving the appropriate authorisations. If the application is not accepted on the first attempt or if further negotiation is required, then we will keep working until you achieve a result.

What's different about Tax Assure

Singular focus

Tax debt negotiation and resolution is all we do. We aren’t insolvency practitioners or lenders first. Our work complements that of accountants with a separate and unique specialty: a deep understanding of how to advise on and negotiate with the ATO and state revenue offices to achieve the best possible reductions of tax debt.

Unrivalled experience

We are Australia’s most experienced tax debt advisors. Our principals each have more than 20 years’ commercial, legal and tax advice experience. We value highly the trust we have earned from our clients and partners over years of help paying tax debt.

Unique expertise

No other firm in Australia who only provides ATO debt resolution services is registered with the Tax Practitioners Board, whose regulation ensures we meet national standards of professional and ethical conduct.

Independence is strength

Our independence means we have the freedom to always do the right thing. We don’t answer to a parent company, insolvency practitioners, or lenders. Our sole motivation is to manage and reduce your tax debt, getting you into a compliant position with the ATO so you can get on with business.

CLIENT QUOTE:

"I thought there was no hope. I had already had applications refused."

Recovering interest and penalties leaves our client “speechless”

CHALLENGE:

A self-made marketing expert, whose ATO obligations escaped him for 20 years, found himself with almost $200,000 of interest charges that built up over that time. With everything that went on in his life, he was never able to get his head around what was required of him, and as time went on, he became more fearful and buried his head in the sand more.

SOLUTION:

Our client was able to bring his lodgements up to date, and engaged Tax Assure to help him recover the interest charges.

RESULTS:

We fought the matter for 2 years and left our client “speechless” when we were in the end successful in recovering nearly $200,000 of interest charges.

January 17, 2023

The Best Ways To Negotiate Tax Debt

There are two things you should do if you have a tax debt and that’s talk to the trusted experts in how to negotiate tax debt and to do it as soon as you can.

What Our Clients Say

“Thank you very much for all of your work which has produced, as you say, a great result for me. Obviously, you have undertaken a lot of work and negotiations on my behalf and I thank you for how effective that work has been.”

– Business Owner (Agricultural Industry)

Frequently Asked Questions

01Will the ATO forgive my tax debt?

The short answer is no. The ATO is under a statutory duty to collect tax debt and is therefore unable to write off or forgive primary (core) debt. There is no negotiating this type of debt. The only exceptions to this are:

- Bankruptcy or liquidation, when the ATO is considered a creditor the same as any other entity that is owed money

- If it is uneconomical to pursue the debt - if the ATO deems that the individual or entity has (and will have) no way to pay (and they have tried other methods of recovery such as garnishee notices or DPNs).

However, even in these circumstances, the ATO can and will re-raise your debt in the future if you show income or assets that make the debt payable through a recovery action. As well, any future credit or refund you may receive can be applied to reduce your debt including other Australian Government agencies. So, when it comes to negotiating ATO debt, it is only possible to negotiate any interest and penalties.

02How do I know if I could get a refund of interest and penalties?

At Tax Assure, we review the full ATO history for every client we work with to understand whether any interest or penalties can be reduced or refunded — even if these amounts have already been paid.

If the circumstances around the original debt fit the ATO’s legal criteria, almost anyone could be eligible for a refund of the interest and penalty charges that have been accrued on the core debt.

We prepare an application for interest and penalty refunds with the objective of maximising the chance of achieving a substantial refund – which will either reduce current debt or can even result in a credit.

So while primary tax debt cannot be written off, there is a huge benefit in talking to us about possible refunds of interest and penalties.

We have an amazing track record of achieving substantial refunds for our clients.

03How much does it cost to negotiate ATO debt?

At Tax Assure we offer a fixed success fee to negotiate your tax debt on your behalf.

This means that we don’t charge based on the time we spend, but instead for the outcomes we achieve. And if we don’t achieve a result that reduces your tax debt, then you don’t pay.

04Shouldn’t accountants be used to help resolve tax debt?

Yes and no.

Accountants have a broad role in the oversight of a client’s financial management. Whilst we often work closely with accountants as we help clients navigate tax debt, most accountants are not specialists in tax debt resolution.

Approximately 30-40% of Tax Assure’s clients are referred by accountants who want to connect those clients with specialists in managing tax debt.

Tax Assure provides a separate and specialist expertise in how to navigate the complexities of the ATO, the various debt departments, people, processes, regulations and documentation that is critical to ensuring the best possible outcome for your tax debt.

05How do you know if you have an ATO tax penalty?

If you are even a day late on your ATO tax debt payment, general interest starts to accrue on your debt. Interest rates have climbed significantly in recent years, and interest compounds daily on your tax debt.

Your overall debt can comprise a number of elements: the primary debt, penalties charges and general interest charge (GIC).

The interest rates and penalties applied by the ATO means that overall debt really can add up fast. In some circumstances, the interest and penalties can be up to 50% the primary/core debt!