ATO debt help Perth: getting a Western Australian business back on track

Why do Perth businesses end up owing the ATO?

Western Australia’s economy runs in cycles. When resources projects ramp up, contractors in Welshpool, Kewdale, Malaga and Kwinana hire fast, buy equipment and stretch to meet demand. When a project is deferred or a head contractor tightens its payment terms, the same businesses are left holding wages, finance repayments and tax that fell due on income they haven’t collected.

That’s why tax debt in Perth often looks different from the eastern states. It tends to be larger, it builds quickly, and it’s often attached to a business that is still profitable on paper. Help that works recognises this: the problem is usually timing, not viability, and the fix should match.

What does RevenueWA collect, and how does it handle arrears?

In Western Australia, state taxes are collected by RevenueWA, part of the Department of Finance. The two that matter most for business owners are:

• Payroll tax, payable once total Australian wages exceed the WA threshold. Contractors who staff up for a shutdown or a new site can cross it in a single month.
• Land tax, assessed annually on land held above the threshold, which catches owners who hold their yard or an investment property outside the family home.

RevenueWA’s payroll tax guide says employers who can’t pay in full can apply to pay by instalments or to extend the time for payment (WA Government payroll tax guide). Interest applies to these arrangements, and late payment penalties apply if you apply after the due date. The supporting material can be substantial: bank statements, balance sheets, two years of profit and loss statements and a month-by-month cash flow projection for the instalment period.

That last point is useful even if you never apply. A month-by-month cash flow projection is exactly what your accountant, the ATO and any lender will want to see too. Build it once and use it everywhere.

Which Perth industries carry the heaviest tax debt?

Mining and resources services. Labour hire, fabrication, maintenance, haulage, drilling support and catering companies serving the Pilbara and Goldfields often work on 30 to 60 day terms or longer. Large wage bills mean PAYG withholding and super build quickly, and both can lead to director penalty notices. If PAYG or super has gone unreported for more than three months, read about lockdown director penalty notices straight away.

Construction and trades. Perth’s housing market has kept builders and trades busy, but fixed-price contracts signed before costs rose have squeezed margins, and GST is owed on progress claims whether or not they’re paid on time.

Transport. Road freight between Perth and the regions is a long-haul business with heavy fuel and maintenance costs. A broken-down prime mover or a lost contract can put an operator a quarter or two behind.

What free help is available in Western Australia?

Service	What it offers	Contact
Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC)	Free information, advice and guidance; one-to-one advisory; dispute resolution	13 31 40
Small Business Debt Helpline	Free financial counselling for small business owners Australia-wide	1800 413 828
RevenueWA	Payment arrangements for payroll tax	Online portal
ATO	Payment plans and interest remission requests	Online or by phone

The SBDC is WA’s main small business agency. Its listed services include a one-to-one advisory service and a dispute resolution service (business.gov.au). If a head contractor is withholding payment, the dispute resolution service may be a faster, cheaper first step than borrowing against the unpaid invoice.

Before calling the ATO, understand what it is likely to accept. Our pages on ATO payment plans and super guarantee charge debt are a good place to start.

Illustrative example: a Perth mining services contractor

This scenario is invented. Amounts are rounded to show the reasoning.

A Kwinana-based fabrication and maintenance company with 30 workers wins a large shutdown contract at a processing plant. It hires extra tradespeople, pays them weekly and invoices the client at the end of each month on 60-day terms. Then the client disputes a variation and holds back two invoices while it’s resolved.

Within five months the business owes the ATO about $420k across GST, PAYG withholding and unpaid super, and RevenueWA has issued a payroll tax notice for roughly $70k. The directors are worried about personal liability because the PAYG and super amounts are large.

They take three steps. First, they ask the SBDC about its dispute resolution service for the variation. Second, they lodge every outstanding activity statement and super guarantee statement so they don’t drift into lockdown territory. Third, they get a quote for a loan secured over the company’s industrial unit in Kwinana and a director’s home in Rockingham, with the ATO portion paid directly at settlement and RevenueWA cleared from the same advance.

Comparing that quote with an ATO plan and a RevenueWA instalment arrangement, they choose the loan because it removes the director exposure immediately and the disputed invoices are expected to be resolved within months. If the dispute had looked likely to drag on for a year, a longer, smaller structure would have been wiser.

If your situation looks similar, check whether you qualify in about a minute.

How does our funding work for Perth businesses?

We lend Australia-wide, and distance from the east coast makes no difference to how we assess a WA application. What’s available:

• Secured loans from $20k to $5m, as first mortgages, second mortgages or caveat loans over residential or commercial property in Perth, Mandurah, the South West, the Goldfields or anywhere else in WA.
• Unsecured and cash-flow funding for trading businesses, usually $5k to $500k, sized on turnover and bank statements. See unsecured loans for ATO debt for when that route fits.
• ATO debt, defaulted plans and earlier credit issues looked at case by case.
• For property-secured loans, funding is possible in as little as 24 hours, and the ATO can be paid directly at settlement where that’s arranged.

Our lending is for business purposes only. There’s no Perth shopfront; you deal with a specialist by phone, which works around site rosters and the time difference.

How do FIFO rosters and regional sites affect a Perth application?

Many Perth business owners split their time between the city and a regional site, or run crews on fly-in fly-out rosters. That can make a tax problem harder to manage, because the person who would normally ring the ATO is on a mine site for two weeks at a time. It also makes the paperwork slower to gather. A few practical habits help:

• Give your accountant or bookkeeper written authority to talk to the ATO and RevenueWA while you’re away.
• Keep a shared folder with your latest BAS, ATO statement, bank statements and contract schedule, so anyone helping can see the full picture.
• Schedule calls with creditors and lenders on your days off, and say upfront when you can be reached.

Owners who own property in the Pilbara, the Goldfields or the South West rather than in Perth itself often ask whether that security counts. It can. Regional property is assessed on its own value and saleability, so be specific on the enquiry form about where it is and what it’s used for.

What to do in the next week

1. Put every ATO and RevenueWA amount, with due dates, into one sheet.
2. Lodge any overdue activity statements and super guarantee statements.
3. Build a month-by-month cash flow forecast; you’ll need it for RevenueWA, the ATO and any lender.
4. If a client dispute is the root cause, contact the SBDC.
5. Ask each creditor what it will accept, then compare with a funding quote.

Ready to see what’s possible in WA?

Tax debt is everyday work for us, and we don’t back away from it the way many lenders do. Enquiring takes about 60 seconds, and there’s no credit check at the enquiry stage, so asking costs your credit file nothing. We don’t send your details to a pile of lenders, so your phone stays quiet. A specialist works through your situation and calls you. Please complete the form accurately, especially the ATO amount and any RevenueWA debt, so we can match the right structure first time.

Comparing cities? See ATO debt help by city or the main tax debt loans guide.

See what your Perth business qualifies for →