Specific compliance activities
Compliance activities used to address each of the taxes, duties and grants that we administer.
Payroll tax
Payroll tax compliance activities focus on identifying and contacting liable employers who have failed to register with us and auditing registered clients who appear to have understated their wages. Initiatives to ensure payroll tax compliance in 2008-09 are:
Reduce red tape for employers operating interstate by progressing payroll tax harmonisation.
Continue to audit unregistered businesses where information available to us suggests a business is liable for payroll tax.
Investigate businesses where information available to us indicates taxable wages have been understated.
Identify employers who are claiming the benefit of multiple thresholds by failing to declare group structures for payroll tax.
Review all refund requests and investigate high value requests or where anomalies are identified with information provided by third parties.
Target non-complying employers in the construction industry.
Follow up employers who fail to lodge their monthly and/or annual returns on time.
Duties
Our duties compliance program focuses on both individual transactions and on Electronic Duties Return (EDR) clients who assess documents. Initiatives to ensure duties compliance in 2008-09 are:
Identify and contact clients who have not presented liable land rich transactions to OSR for assessment
Investigate EDR clients to ensure the accuracy of assessments and that their systems and procedures adhere to OSR’s directions
Identify transfers of land where duty has not been paid
Review high value property transfers
Identify and investigate transactions where the correct value has not been used to calculate duty payable
Review sale of business transactions where third party information indicates that the correct duty has not been paid
Continue to review corporate reconstruction exemptions
Land tax
Our land tax compliance program will focus on the incorrect application of exemptions and thresholds, and the identification of land owners who have failed to register for land tax. Initiatives to ensure land tax compliance in 2008-09 are:
Identify and contact liable landowners who have not registered with OSR for land tax
Contact clients who are likely to be incorrectly claiming a ‘Principal Place of Residence’ or ‘Primary Production Land’ exemption
Investigate land owners claiming a ‘Principal Place of Residence’ exemption in NSW and another jurisdiction
Identify and contact land owners who receive the benefit of multiple thresholds because their properties have not been aggregated on one assessment
Contact lessees of Crown land who may not be aware of their land tax liability.
First home benefits
Compliance activities ensure first home buyers benefiting from the First Home Owner Grant and First Home Plus schemes satisfy the eligibility criteria. All first home buyers who receive benefits under the First Home Owner Grant and First Home Plus schemes must verify by way of a statutory declaration that they have met the eligibility criteria, including the residency requirement. Applicants who are not eligible for the schemes are required to repay the benefits back to OSR, which may include penalty and/or interest.
Initiatives to ensure first home benefits compliance in 2008-09 are:
Identify and investigate applicants who fail to meet the residency requirements
Verify information provided by clients against third party data for spouses, prior ownership, understated duty amounts for First Home Plus and inconsistencies between property transfers and First Home Owner Grant applications
Continue to audit financial institutions who process applications on OSR’s behalf to ensure that appropriate system and processing controls are in place
Investigate anonymous disclosures reported to the Compliance Information line.
Parking space levy
Initiatives to ensure parking space levy compliance in 2008-09 are:
Identify new owners in St Leonards and Chatswood who may not be aware of the existence of the levy or their obligation to pay the levy
Investigate registered clients where it appears that the client is overstating exemptions, including clients who continually claim large exemptions
Undertake investigations of commercial parking operators to validate their methods for determining concessions.
Improve debt management
An independent review of OSR’s debt management practices has recently been completed. A key focus of our compliance program for 2008-09 will be to implement agreed outcomes from the review to improve debt management and the collection of outstanding taxes and duties.
Compliance Information Line
OSR encourages clients to make voluntary disclosures if they find they have understated their liability. When a voluntary disclosure is made a reduced level of interest is imposed compared to those cases where the understatement is identified as a result of OSR action.
We also investigate anonymous disclosures from members of the public. Confidentiality is assured and we welcome any information about non-compliance relating to the taxes, duties and grants we administer. Anonymous disclosures can be reported to the Compliance Information Line.
