Businesses operating in the cleaning industry or the courier industry, take note:
Commencing 1 July 2018 if you operate a business which provides cleaning services or courier services you will now need to report to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) the payments made to contractors for provision of cleaning or courier services. These payments will need to be reported for each financial year to the ATO using the Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR). The first TPAR for those operating in this industry will be for the financial year ended 30 June 2019 and will be due with the ATO by the 28 August 2019.
WHAT ARE CLEANING SERVICES?
Cleaning services include, but are not limited to, any of the following activities undertaken on a building, residence, structure, place, surface, transport/vehicle, industrial machinery or equipment and for events:
- interior cleaning
- exterior cleaning (except sandblasting)
- carpet cleaning
- chimney cleaning
- gutter cleaning
- road sweeping and street cleaning
- swimming pool cleaning
- park and park facilities cleaning.
WHAT ARE COURIER SERVICES?
Activities where goods or items such as parcels, packages, letters and food are collected from, and or delivered to any place in Australia using a variety of methods such as car, truck, station wagon, van, ute, motorcycle, motorised scooter, drones, bicycle or other non-powered means of transport, or on foot will be deemed courier services.
Courier services will not include the following:
- delivery of goods your business provides where delivery is the only method your customers have of receiving the goods
- passenger transport services, i.e. buses and taxis
- transporting of blood, blood products, organs or tissue, or
- freight transport.
WHAT IF MY BUSINESS PROVIDES MIXED SERVICES?
If less than 10% of your businesses total turnover is from services from cleaning or courier activities you will not need to report payments made to contractors.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE REPORTED?
The details you need to report for each payee / contractor include the:
- ABN (where known)
- Name (business name or individual’s name)
- Address
- Total amounts for the financial year of the:
- Gross amount paid (including GST plus any tax withheld)
- Total GST you paid them
- Total tax withheld where ABN was not quoted.
WHAT DON’T YOU NEED TO REPORT?
Businesses in these industries are not required to report on the following payments:
- Payments for materials only
- Unpaid invoices as at 30 June each year (for an annual report)
- PAYG withholding payments, as these are already reported elsewhere, and
- Payments within consolidated groups
Note, other industries to come under these ATO reporting obligations from 1 July 2019 will be those business that supply road freight, security, investigation, surveillance or IT services.
If you would like further information and if you wish to discuss if your business needs to comply with these reporting obligations please contact our Canny Accounting team.
Gabriella Gibney – Manager
B.Com CA