Falling behind on tax lodgements happens more often than most people realise. Life gets in the way, a business gets busy, a relationship ends, a founder wears too many hats, a year slips past and then another. By the time it surfaces, the problem can feel larger than it is.
The ATO takes a measured view of taxpayers who come forward voluntarily to bring their affairs up to date. Clients who act are almost always better off than clients who wait to be chased. The sooner the picture is clear, the sooner the path back to compliance is mapped out and the smaller the exposure tends to be.
Our role is to take the overwhelm out of it. We assess what is owed in terms of lodgement, we build a plan, and we work through it with you methodically until you are back on track.
What’s included
Caught up quietly, and kept that way.
What this service includes.
Full obligation audit
We pull your ATO portal history and identify every outstanding return, BAS, IAS, FBT lodgement, and superannuation guarantee obligation for every entity you are involved in. You get a single view of the backlog before anything is lodged.
A priority plan
Not all overdue lodgements carry equal weight. We sequence them to reduce escalation risk first, manage cash flow implications second, and clear historical obligations third. The plan is written down and shared with you before any work starts.
Return preparation, year by year
We prepare each outstanding return using the records available. Where records are incomplete, we work with you to reconstruct what we need from bank statements, merchant reports, and third-party data already held by the ATO.
ATO liaison and payment arrangements
If there is a liability owing and paying it in full is not practical, we negotiate a payment arrangement on your behalf. We handle the conversations with the ATO so you do not have to.
Penalty and interest review
Where failure to lodge penalties or general interest charge have been applied, we review the circumstances and prepare a remission request where there are reasonable grounds for one. Remissions are not guaranteed, but unchallenged penalties are rarely reduced.
Return to current and stay there
Once the backlog is cleared, we transition you onto a proper compliance cycle so this does not happen again. That is the whole point of the exercise.
Who it’s for
Who this is for.
Individuals and business owners who are more than one year behind on tax lodgements and want it resolved, quickly and calmly, without being made to feel stupid for letting it slip. We see this often. It is not unusual and it is almost always fixable.
If you have received ATO correspondence about overdue lodgements, default assessments, garnishee notices, or director penalty notices, time matters. The sooner we see the notices, the more options remain on the table.
How we approach it
Stabilise. Sequence. Close out.
- 01
Stabilise first
On our first call we focus on what is urgent. If there is correspondence with a deadline or a debt collection action underway, we address that before anything else. Stabilising the immediate risk is the priority before we dive into the broader catch-up.
- 02
Scope and sequence
With the immediate pressure managed, we build the full picture. Every entity, every obligation, every year. We then sequence the work into a realistic plan with visible milestones so you know what is happening and when.
- 03
Work through and close out
We prepare, lodge, and negotiate methodically until the backlog is fully cleared. When the final return is lodged and any payment arrangement is in place, you move onto our standard compliance cycle and the overdue chapter is closed.
From our work
Inherited books, rebuilt in under two weeks
Based on real jobs and typical situations. Names, figures and details changed.
The situation
Two directors of a commercial plumbing business came to us with returns that had been lodged but that they had no confidence in. Their records couldn't tell them whether the company was profitable, what it owed, or what they owed personally. They wanted it straight.
What we did
- Worked through every ATO account for the company and the directors, three years of the accounting file, the payroll reporting history and every lodged return.
- Tested each lodgement against the books. The activity statements reconciled to within a few dollars. The company tax returns did not.
- Found the main problem. The directors' weekly pay had been recorded as a loan to them instead of wages, so tax had never been withheld and super had never been paid on it. That one error flowed into every year's figures.
- Rebuilt payroll month by month for all three years, recalculated the super owed, corrected the activity statements and prepared amended company returns. The whole file was reviewed twice inside the firm before anything went to the clients.
- Moved the business onto proper payroll with on-time super from the next pay run, so the problem couldn't come back.
Why it mattered
Once the corrections are processed, the rebuilt figures show the company had no income tax to pay for any of those years: it had not made a taxable profit overall. The directors went from guessing to one clear figure, a plain-English report explaining every part of it, and a step-by-step plan to deal with what was outstanding on terms they could manage. We prepared the approach to the ATO with them, so they didn't have to face it alone.
Every section of the report ended with a short "In plain English" summary, so the directors could read those panels and understand the whole position without the technical detail.
Technical note
Payments to working directors for their services are generally wages, whatever the ledger calls them. Recording them as a loan doesn't remove the obligations to withhold tax and pay super, and it can create a separate Division 7A problem. Reclassifying them correctly, and recalculating the super guarantee and interest, is usually the first step to getting the true position.
FAQ
Common questions.
If yours isn’t here, ask it on the first call. Thirty minutes, no fee.
Will the ATO prosecute me for not lodging?
Prosecution for non-lodgement is uncommon, but it does not require evasion: a pattern of ignored notices can be enough, and some notices carry short deadlines that we treat as urgent. Most overdue lodgement matters are resolved administratively, through lodgement, payment arrangements and, where the circumstances support one, a penalty remission request. None of those is guaranteed. We establish what is overdue, what the notices require and what can be lodged or proposed first, and acting sooner is always better.
What if I do not have records for some of the years?
We work with what is available. The ATO holds significant third-party data already: bank interest, dividends, employer payments, and in many cases business income reported through payment platforms. Combined with bank statements and whatever records you do have, we can usually reconstruct a defensible return for each year. Where real gaps remain, we discuss reasonable estimates and how they are disclosed.
How much will it cost to catch up?
Fees depend on the number of years, the number of entities involved, and the state of the records. We give you a fixed fee quote after the initial scope call so you know the investment before any work begins. We can also discuss staged payments so the fee itself does not become a barrier to getting this resolved.
Can you help with penalties and interest that have already been charged?
Yes. Where failure to lodge penalties or general interest charge have been applied, we prepare a remission request setting out the circumstances. The ATO considers remission requests case by case and looks for genuine reasons for the delay. Remission is not automatic, but it is available where the facts support it.
I have received a director penalty notice. Is it too late?
Director penalty notices have strict timeframes and the action available to you depends on the type of notice and how long ago it was issued. If you have received one, contact us immediately and we will triage it on the first call.
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