From Fairfax:
Hundreds of thousands of building industry contractors who may have dodged their GST or income-tax obligations have been hit with $2.3 billion in tax bills.
But there could be billions more outstanding, as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) continues data matching information reported to it to identify operators in the cash economy.
A reporting system was introduced in 2012-13 that requires businesses in the building and construction industry to report payments they make to contractors.
The ATO had so far contacted about 250,000 contractors. As a result it has identified income tax and GST liabilities of $2.3 billion for 2012-13.
That’ll be a nice little hole in the small business stimulus.
