Payment plan for taxpayers affected by the increased cost of fuel

Overview

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will give temporary relief for businesses unable to meet their tax obligations because of fuel supply issues, where appropriate.

Eligible taxpayers can access the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) fuel response tailored payment plan with the following conditions:

• no upfront payment
• a 3-year payment plan period of 36 equal monthly instalments
• general interest charge remission – the ATO will make a decision to remit any general interest charge that has accrued from the time of your application to the date of the third monthly instalment provided you pay all instalments agreed under the payment plan for 3 months and bring any outstanding lodgements up to date in that period. 

Check if you can apply

To be eligible, applicants must hold an Australian business number (ABN) and meet the following 4 criteria:

• Have experienced an increase in business operating costs which is either attributable directly to higher fuel costs, or indirectly attributable to high fuel costs because of increased transport, logistics or other supply chain costs.
• Have a new tax debt or are unable to service an existing tax debt.
• Can demonstrate a reduced capacity to pay due to the high fuel prices. This is separate from a general downturn in business or ordinary cashflow issues. This means that if fuel prices hadn’t been so high, the applicant anticipates that they would have been able to meet their payment obligations, including their instalments under existing payment plans.
• Their tax lodgements are up-to-date within 3 months of the payment plan being set up.