The taxable payments annual report (TPAR) is due soon for certain:

• businesses that pay contractors for certain services, including building and construction, cleaning, courier and road freight, information technology (IT), or security, investigation or surveillance
• government entities that pay grants to people or organisations with an Australian Business Number (ABN).

The ATO is reminding businesses who are required to lodge a TPAR to do so by 28 August 2024. This is an annual requirement and penalties may apply if they don’t lodge.

ATO Assistant Commissioner Tony Goding commented:

The taxable payments reporting system (TPRS) ensures contractors providing certain services report all their income. This helps keep a level playing field by making sure all businesses pay their fair share of tax.

TPAR data strengthens our ability to detect and deal with dishonest operators trying to gain an unfair advantage over the majority who do the right thing. It also protects billions of dollars in missing taxes each year, money that funds essential community services, like health, education and natural disaster management.

In the 2023–24 financial year, we provided visibility of more than $451 billion in gross TPAR payments from almost 177,000 businesses to almost 1.3 million contractors. In doing so, we have helped contractors complete their income tax returns through the pre-fill and transaction services report.

From 2019 to 2023, we issued approximately $9 million in penalties to over 5,200 businesses not lodging their TPAR.

Lodging online is quick and easy. If businesses are unsure if they need to lodge a TPAR, they can visit www.ato.gov.au/TPAR