The ATO has reached out to the tax professional community and is encouraging practitioners to provide feedback on their experiences in relation to garnishees and freezing orders.
In particular it says it would like to hear practitioner responses to the following questions:
What are your observations about the impact of its use of garnishees or freezing orders in relation to uncollected debt?Do you have any examples of where its use of either a garnishee (in preference to a freezing order) or freezing order (in preference to a garnishee) could have achieved a better outcome for the client and for the ATO?Do you think it should provide practitioner with further guidance regarding when it uses garnishees or freezing orders in debt matters?
You can respond to these questions by posting on a discussion board provided on the ATO website here*. You will need to be a registered member of the ATO’s online “Let’s Talk” community to complete your post. If you are not already a registered member, you can register at this link.
The period of consultation is open until 28 July 2017.
There is a planned Legal Practitioners Round Table that will be held in August to discuss the impact of garnishee and freezing orders further with the legal profession. For practitioners interested, further information about membership of the Legal Professional Round Table, and minutes from the meetings, can be found here.
*Please note however that any posting you make can be viewed by the public. Please ensure you do not include taxpayers’ names or other identifying information in any posts. The site is moderated by the ATO, but the moderators do not edit or alter any comments and will only remove comments deemed to be significantly off topic, offensive or malicious or contain personal tax information, in which case they are removed from the site immediately. Refer to the Let’s Talk Terms and Conditions.
The ATO wants your opinion on garnishees and freezing orders The ATO wants your opinion on garnishees and freezing orders The ATO wants your opinion on garnishees and freezing orders
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