Small business owners continue to voice their frustrations, lamenting the difficult conditions they face in the current economic environment. Changes to superannuation, a looming new workplace ban, an end to card surcharges, high interest rates and rising insurance costs, as well as a more aggressive ATO are making life hard for many owners.
Dominique Smith has run her two takeaway burger shops, Moobi Burgers, on the NSW Central Coast for about the past six years. But things have had to change dramatically after she got a $150,000 bill from the ATO last year.
“They were going to come for me, come for everything,” Smith told Yahoo Finance about the Director’s Penalty Notice because she couldn’t pay her activity statement.
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“I tried every way that I could to contact the ATO and come to some sort of reasonable agreement with them… but they were just like ‘don’t care, here’s your bill, see you later’,” she said.
After years of taking a more relaxed approach, the ATO has ramped up the issuance of DNPs in recent years, which are used to recover selected tax debts from a company’s directors personally.
The one that Smith received was among more than 84,000 sent out by the ATO in the 2024-25 financial year for unpaid taxes or superannuation charges. That was a 136 per cent increase on the previous year.
“Being a company director comes with some important responsibilities and personal liabilities. Many directors don’t fully understand this and can get caught with a very nasty surprise from the tax office,” Tax Ombudsman Ruth Owen said this month.
For Smith, she said a liquidation approach, shifting the business to her husband, was ultimately necessary.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been keen to tout the amount of small business support provided by the federal government, highlighting $3.5 billion small business tax relief in the federal budget in May.
Perth-based hair salon over Krystal Solera says it’s nowhere near enough. She took aim at the Albanese government for making things hard for small business in a viral rant on her social media – something she says is out of character.
“We employ people. We pay wages. We pay super. We pay tax. We collect GST for you. We pay payroll tax for the [privilege] of employing more people,” it read.
“We’re already drowning in costs and apparently your answer is to just keep taking.”
