Self Employed Australia

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“Everyone needs an Advocate”

Self-Employed Australia

Scary! Victoria’s second attempt at hotel quarantine starts today. Will it be safe????

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Today, Monday 7 December, is a rather scary day for Victorians and all Australians. Today is the day that the Victorian government restarts the hotel quarantine program for overseas travellers. The big question is: How safe will this quarantine program be?

The three hotels to open immediately include the Park Royal Airport, Transit Sunshine and Airport T2. Another six hotels are planned to be opened over the next two weeks leading into Christmas. In addition, The Alfred is running two ‘MediHotels, the Novotel Southwharf for complex care and Holiday Inn Flinders Lane for Covid-positive people. One hundred and sixty travellers are expected to arrive daily.

We can only hope that, in restarting, the government has detailed plans for the nitty-gritty of hotel quarantine management. It would be good to have such detailed plans publicly released. Why? Because without proper plans, Victorians run a grave risk of another Covid ‘fire’ outbreak.

Think back eight months.

The first Victorian Covid experience was as if a large factory in the centre of Melbourne exploded, igniting a fire that raged for months. While it was burning, the factory spewed toxic chemicals into the atmosphere poisoning tens of thousands and killing hundreds of people. Millions had to be forced into home isolation to avoid the poisonous clouds.

Now, the very managers (the Andrews government) responsible for the (Covid) factory fire are still in charge and reopening the factory. Should this make everyone nervous? You betcha! Very nervous!

What’s gobsmacking is that when the first Victorian hotel quarantine program started on 27 March there was no ‘plan’ for how to manage the program.

There was no ‘plan’ about how to modify hotels, not designed to handle medical situations, to cope with this highly infectious Covid flu pandemic. There was no ‘plan’ to train staff. No ‘plan’ to provide PPE. No ‘plan’ for medical personnel support. No ‘plan’ to manage travellers suffering mental, or other health problems, or drug addictions. No ‘plan’ for the supply of fresh food or clean clothing. No ‘plan’ for clinical software provision to track people’s health. And no ‘plan’ about what do with people who tested Covid-positive.

This ‘no plan’ was stated under oath to the Coate Inquiry by the then Secretary of the Victorian Department of Health.

The excuse from the Andrews government for its ‘no plan’ policy is that the Covid pandemic was ‘unprecedented’! Unfortunately for the Premier, his Cabinet, responsible departments and department bosses, ‘unprecedented’ is a lie proven as such by the facts.

A flu pandemic was expected. The Andrews government had an international legal obligation to be prepared.

As early as 2005, the World Health Organisation issued a global alert that a flu pandemic was inevitable and that countries had to be prepared. The last great flu pandemics were in 1918, 1957 and 1968. The timing and type of the next pandemic was the unknown.

In 2006 the Australian government developed detailed plans for pandemic management in conjunction with all the states. This included the October 2006 Exercise Cumpston involving all Australian governments testing the plans. The WHO pandemic alert was further upgraded following the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic that was comparatively contained.

In 2014 the Victorian government released its flu pandemic plans aligned with the national plans. Each state government has the ‘on the ground’ management authority and responsibility for pandemic management. That responsibility is legally binding on each government under WHO-administered health regulations.

The Covid pandemic was declared by the WHO on 30 January 2020. On 18 February the Australian government released its Covid-specific pandemic plan. Each state in turn updated its plans and preparations. The Victorian government released its Covid plan on 10 March.

That is, the pandemic was predicted, expected and response plans highly developed. The Victorian Chief Health Officer stated in Parliamentary evidence that several pandemic simulations had been conducted in the 12 months prior to Covid.

The Andrews government did have some plans. They had plans for the transiting of travellers at Melbourne airport, placing these people onto buses and then delivering them to hotels. But there were no plans for what to do then.

Travellers were ‘dumped’ into chaos. The Victorian Hotel quarantine program was being managed, or rather mismanaged, on the run. That’s the evidence and admissions by the Andrews government to the Coate Inquiry. Gobsmacking but true.

Here now is attempt number two. The same people, the Andrews government, are having another go. Do they have a ‘plan’ this time for the nitty-gritty of running the hotel quarantine program? Goodness let’s hope so. And let’s hope it’s an effective plan!

There’s a small business reform ‘steam train’ happening with the federal government

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There’s considerable reform occurring at the federal level affecting self-employed, small business people. This is all positive ‘stuff’.

Paying Small Business on time
From 1 January 2021, businesses with more than $100 million in turnover must report to a central government database their small business supplier payment terms and practices. We understand that the information will be publicly available. Next year we expect to see legislation where if a large business does not pay small business on time, the large business will lose access to government contracts. The reporting scheme is important for this. These are major moves to stop large businesses using small businesses as ‘banks’.

Beefing up unfair contract laws
In 2016 large businesses were required to have ‘fair’ contracts with small businesses. What is ‘unfair’ under the law is common sense. See here. But the laws were weak on enforcement and now the federal government has achieved agreement from all the state and territory governments to ‘beef up’ the laws. This is a significant development.

  • Currently, unfair terms are ‘null and void’. Now unfair terms will be ‘unlawful’.
  • Financial penalties will now apply.
  • The definition of small business is expanded.
  • Clarifying what is a standard form contract.
  • Currently, the law only applies to contract up to $300,000. Now there will be no limit.

Big businesses have bought these tougher laws on themselves. Too many large businesses have ignored the laws. Now the laws will have real teeth.

Small business insolvency
Following the Covid disaster, many small businesses will collapse or have collapsed. The federal government is changing insolvency laws for small business. This will give small business people a better chance to turn their businesses around or to retain some control of the situation during the insolvency process. For too long some insolvency practitioners have simply ripped out the value of a failed business to fund the insolvency practitioner’s business. The new laws are broadly designed around the US ‘Chapter 11’ insolvency laws.

These individual reforms are important but as a package are hugely important. If small businesses and self-employed people are to rebuild after the Covid-induced huge downturn, these reforms are doubly important. We congratulate the government on these moves.

There is more reform in the pipeline and we’ll talk about it in the coming weeks.

A gold-lined ATO stuff-up blows up in the ATO’s face

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Here’s an ATO story that might interest you.

On Friday last, 6 November, the Australian Taxation Office had a serious legal bomb blow up in its face. It’s so serious that the full bench of the Federal Court has put a ten-day embargo on the publication of the judgment that went against the ATO. We can only guess why. However, the case, the facts and the implications are known.

In essence, about four years ago the ATO destroyed the Australian private-sector gold-refining industry. It did this after international criminals ripped off up to a billion dollars in GST through trading gold. The gold refiners were unwitting conduits in the massive scam. Instead of chasing the criminals, the ATO attacked the refiners, most of whom were small businesses, effectively bankrupting many in the sector.

The scandal for the ATO strikes at the core of its competency or rather its incompetency. The criminal scam was possible because of a known loophole in the GST legislation. In the early 2000s, international criminals had pulled off the same scam in the UK and other jurisdictions. Those countries amended their VAT (GST) laws around 2004 thereby closing the loophole.

The ATO knew about the VAT (GST) scam and how to stop it. If it didn’t, it was stupid. It did nothing. In 2012 the criminals moved into Australia. ISIS operatives are believed to have been involved. The scam was slick in its simplicity.

The criminals sold impure gold to the Australian refiners. The refiners processed the gold to a purity suitable for bullion. The refiners paid GST on their purchases as is normal. The criminals didn’t forward the GST to the ATO and disappeared. This went on for four years until April 2017 when the ATO finally moved to have the legal loophole closed.

It’s a reasonable assumption that some refiners acted in collusion with the criminals. But it is clear from internal ATO documents that it pursued a deliberate strategy not to target the GST thieves but instead to pursue what it called its “refiner retention strategy” to hamstring the refining industry.

The ATO took a blanket ‘kill the industry’ approach. It can only be speculated as to the ATO’s motivation. Perhaps the ATO was seeking to cover up its gross incompetence by not stopping the scam before it started and then allowing it to continue for four years before acting.

The ATO instigated standover tactics against the refiners and refused to refund GST credits. This quickly sent refiners to the wall. The ATO followed up by issuing fines and penalties. Significantly the ATO did not move against the only government-owned refiner, the Perth Mint. Why?

But a feisty liquidator stood up to the ATO. The ATO issued a debt against a company for around $200 million. The case went to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with the ATO winning. The liquidator appealed to the Full Bench of the Federal Court. That’s the decision announced on Friday. The ATO lost 3-0 after spending (on some estimates) $40 million in legal fees.

We don’t yet know the details of the Court’s ruling, but we do know the argument mounted by the ATO.

The ATO admitted in evidence that the targeted company was not involved in the criminal activity. But to justify its stance the ATO ran what to this layperson is an eye-wateringly technical and bizarre argument.

The ATO asserted that the refiners were not ‘refining’ the gold they had purchased from the criminals. The ATO used an ‘expert’ to run this argument. Then it conducted an ‘independent’ review. The ATO’s expert headed the review which found that his assessment was correct. Pardon me but, surprise, surprise!

The ATO has now lost in the Federal Court. The immediate implications seem to be that the Federal government now arguably owes the states around $1 billion in GST. Further, that the refiners are owed the (withheld) GST refunds which presumably run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. And refiners attacked by the ATO should be entitled to large scale compensation.

This case goes to the core of the ATO’s approach to auditing and enforcement. In this gold-refining case the ATO ‘stuffed up’ on a massive scale. It failed to move against a known criminal scam with years of notice. It failed to close the scam down during its four years of operation.

In response to its huge failure the ATO sought scapegoats. It targeted innocent refiners who were unwitting tools in the criminal scam. It used its unrestrained powers to bludgeon businesses, regardless of the facts. We see this constantly, particularly with small businesses who either collapse or give in to the ATO because they don’t have the resources to fight back.

This time, after some six years, a liquidator with the resources has proven the ATO wrong.

Lessons must be heeded. The ATO enforcement division is out of control. It’s a wrecking ball in the economy whenever it targets individual businesses or sectors. It wrecked the research and development policies of the government through the same sort of incompetence and vindictiveness demonstrated in the gold-refining case.

The ATO has proven that it cannot reform itself. Reform must be imposed by legislation. A template for such reforms is available based on successful reforms in the USA to its tax authority. Coincidentally I discussed this in an article last week.

Australia cannot afford an ATO that continues to operate as it currently does.

Victoria Covid-19 – Blaming the self-employed and anyone else in sight

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Having lived in Melbourne all my life, I’m ‘picking up’ that this Melbourne Covid-19 deep lockdown has induced fear. Fear is in the Melbourne air.

Yes, it’s fear of the virus. But it’s also fear of continuing incompetence by the Dan Andrews government. The incompetence has led to the Stage 4 lockdown. This is not a party political comment. Labor governments in Western Australia and Queensland have so far successfully and impressively contained the spread of Covid-19.

Instead, there’s something uniquely ugly about the Dan Andrews-led government we’ve seen to date.

  • It has the stench of double standards. One rule for some people. Another rule for others. “You can’t do x. BUT it’s okay if some do!!” This has resulted in confusion about what people can and cannot do. Perhaps the Stage 4 lockdown will be consistent?
  • Gross administrative incompetence.
    • The blame for the ‘sex in quarantine hotels’ scandal lies squarely at the government’s feet. Premier Andrews refused Australian Defence Force personnel oversight. Every other state welcomed the ADF. The virus surged out of the hotels.
    • Management of Covid-19 testing, reporting and tracing is compromised. There appears to be a confused bureaucracy. Just one example from last week. A business shut down due to one staff member testing positive. Other staff were refused testing by the health department, yet the doctors wanted to test the staff. What the hell?!
  • Blame everyone but yourself. ‘It’s not me’ Premier Andrews has constantly stated in press conferences reported by media. He’s blamed the federal government for aged care problems, families for whatever (?), workers for going to work, the private sector and young people amongst many others.

We feel compelled to jump into this ‘blame others’ game when the Premier directs blame towards self-employed people. Last week Premier Andrews again blamed what he called “the structural weakness in our economy … insecure work”. This included contractors (the self-employed). We reject that. The Premier’s own report on ‘insecure work’ shows it is a positive contributor to society. Here’s our summary of the report.

This is part of the Premier’s declared war on the self-employed we reported in mid-June. The Premier has an agenda to make self-employment illegal, to wreck the lives of self-employed people. This reflects the authoritarian approach under Dan Andrews. It’s ugly and induces well-founded fear in Melbourne/Victoria.

Is there now a change in attitude? Perhaps. In press conferences over the last two days, Premier Andrews has been more inclusive. He’s thanked the PM for assistance, including ADF help. We haven’t noticed as many ‘blame others’ statements. If that marks a change in attitude, we can only welcome it.

Jobkeeper and JobSeeker Extension Information

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Last week (22 July) the Morrison government announced that JobKeeper and JobSeeker are being extended past the current cut-off of at the end of September. But there are changes to eligibility and the amounts being paid.

We’ve waited a week to produce this update to check some details with the ATO. Be aware that the legislation for the extension has not passed Parliament, so our summary below is the best information available at the moment.

Current JobKeeper – No changes. Everything is the same until 27 Sept 2020. See here.

Summary: JobKeeper extension (after 28 Sept 2020)

Employees and self-employed people are still both eligible as per current rules.

Payments are reduced (and will be smaller still if you worked fewer than 20 hours a week in February 2020—see note below):
$1,200 a fortnight for October, November, December 2020 (28 September 2020 to 3 January 2021). But
$750 a fortnight if you/your employees worked fewer than 20 hours a week in February 2020.
$1,000 a fortnight for January, February, March 2021 (4 Jan 2021 to 28 March 2021). But
$650 a fortnight if you/your employees worked fewer than 20 hours a week in February 2020.

Payments continue to be made in arrears.

Turnover requirements change

Projected turnover is out. Actual turnover will be used.
For small businesses your turnover must still be down 30%+, but this must be down
in both the June & September 2020 quarters for the $1,200 ($750) payment;
in the June & September & December 2020 quarters for the $1,000 ($650) payment.

If you are not currently on JobKeeper, you can still apply if your turnover then drops during the extension period.

Declaring turnover

This is assessed on your BAS return for actual declared GST turnover.
You do not include any JobKeeper receipts in your turnover because JobKeeper doesn’t have GST. (We have checked with the ATO on this.)
Generally, you compare your 2020 quarterly turnover with your 2019 same quarter turnover (eg: September quarter 2020 to September quarter 2019 and so on).

Hours worked—Self-employed
Whether you have worked 20 hours more/less each week is based on the work you did in February 2020. That is, if you worked more than 20 hours a week in each week of February 2020, you will need to prove that to the ATO.

Based on our long experience with the ATO we expect that the audit division of the ATO will conduct aggressive audits of this. We cannot find any information on what hourly work records the ATO expects of you, particularly as a self-employed person. We strongly urge that if you intend to claim the higher amount (+20 hours) that you go back to your work records first and check that you have significant proof of hours worked. This should include invoices to clients and so on.

Summary: JobSeeker
Higher Covid-19 payments for unemployment (JobSeeker) and other social security have been extended to the end of December 2020, but the amounts drop.
On top of the $565.70 per fortnight you receive

Plus $550 per fortnight to 24 September 2020 (current) but this drops to
Plus $250 per fortnight from 25 September 2020 to the end of December 2020.

Government source documents
Check the government’s fact sheets for full information:

JobKeeper here.
JobSeeker here.

Dan Andrews (Victoria) declares war on small business – ‘destroy em’ they say!

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Thursday, July 16, 2020

Yesterday the Victorian Labor government released its report into the ‘gig economy.’ The 228-page report should be read as a declaration of war against self-employed, small business people across Victoria, and Australia. This is so because a key recommendation calls for laws that would effectively make self-employment illegal.

The recommendation (page 193 of the report) reads:

Recommendation 6
The Inquiry recommends that the FW Act be amended to
(a) codify work status on the face of relevant legislation (rather than relying on indistinct common law tests)
(b) clarify the work status test including by adopting the ‘entrepreneurial worker’ approach, so that those who work as part of another’s enterprise or business are ‘employees’ and autonomous, ’self-employed’ small business workers are covered by commercial laws.

This dumping of the common law definition of self-employment with the creation of a new test (called the ‘entrepreneurial test’) would smash small businesses in Victoria.

We know this because we’ve been following in detail exactly the same laws in California that came into operation on 1 January this year, just before Covid-19 hit. We can confirm reports out of California this week that this ‘kill self-employment law’ has smashed 4.5 million Californian jobs on top of the Covid-19 damage. The Californian law explains why 27.7 per cent of California’s workers are on the dole compared to the national US average of 15.7 per cent under Covid-19.

This is the damage that Premier Dan Andrews and his government now seek to inflict on Victorians. The reports calls for the Federal Government to change the law and, if not changed Federally, for the Victorian government to do this in Victoria.

This is vindictive madness. It displays a distinct hatred of self-employed people, that we are worthless, and of no value to society or the economy. That we must be supressed and eliminated in Victoria.

And to set a course in this direction just as everyone is being smashed by Covid-19 displays an ideological disconnect from reality.

We’ll be preparing a full analysis of the report, but here is our submission to the inquiry in 2019 and our statistical analysis of the gig economy.

We’ll be calling on the Morrison Government to defend self-employed small business people from the Dan Andrews’ attack. But first we’ll get our full analysis done.

Frankly. Good Grief!!!!

Anti-Trump Democrats get political black eye from small business

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Thursday, May 28, 2020

The anti-Trump forces in the USA have just suffered a surprise defeat in a Californian bye-election that has likely implications for the November US Presidential election.

The Democrats suffered a massive backlash against them because of vicious anti-small business laws that have crushed the self-employed small business sector in California.

The law (AB5) started on 1 January this year and essentially outlawed self-employment in California. It’s caused havoc with huge job losses, large numbers leaving the state and economic collapse in independent contractor industry sectors. This bad job wave swept across California just before the Covid-19 disaster.

The Democrats who control the California legislature and created the anti-self-employed laws have responded with arrogance. Go get a union ‘employment’ job they say! Self-employment’s not a ‘real’ job the Democrats claim. Voters have thought differently.

The political power cards play out as follows.

In the US Federal Congress (parliament) the Trump Republicans control the Senate (upper house). But the anti-Trump Democrats control the (lower) House of Representatives with 235 seats to the Republicans’ 197 seats. This Democrat control of the House of Representatives frustrates and limits the Trump agenda. California is the key state giving Democrats their control.

Of the 435 seats in the House, 53 come from California. The Democrats have 46 of those seats. If the Trump Republicans were to win 20 seats from the Democrats and Trump remained President, Trump would control the US Congress. The Californian Democrats’ hatred of small business raises just that scenario: a Trump Presidential and Congressional win.

Just a week ago a Republican Trump loyalist won a bye-election for a Californian House seat, defeating the incumbent Democrat with a 19 per cent swing. A bye-election ‘flip’ of this sort has not happened in California since 1998, let alone one with a swing of this size.

The Trump Republican candidate campaigned hard against the Californian Democrats’ anti-small business law (AB5).

The national implications are clear. The Democrats’ Presidential candidate, Joe Biden, has endorsed California’s AB5, promising to take it across America if he wins. The Trump Republicans will campaign saying Democrat Biden will destroy small business across America. It’s powerful political messaging underpinned by the glaring reality of California’s AB5.

The Democrats have dug themselves into a deep hole. Their actions speak of hatred of self-employed, small business people.

What unfolds in the USA with the November Presidential and Congressional elections over the rights of self-employed people holds potential lessons for Australia—namely, can a political party attack self-employed, small business people and survive politically? Watch this space!

“Reform the ATO”, says Senator. An important speech!

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There has been a major development in the last days of Federal Parliament for this year. For the first time a parliamentarian has made a clear call for reform of the Australian Taxation Office.

Liberal elder statesman Senator Eric Abetz is a former senior minister and government leader in the Senate. Last Wednesday (4 December) he delivered a punchy speech in which he demonstrated why the ATO needs to be reformed. He also outlined a model for how that should be done.

The Senator’s five-minute speech can be viewed here. It’s short but significant!

Senator Abetz referred to

“…the heavy-handed, non-transparent way in which the ATO is treating too many self-employed Australians.”

He added that reform is needed that will “…hold the ATO to account”. And he pointed to the USA’s tax administration laws as a model where, for example:

“… a tax debt … can only be collected once appeals have been exhausted, rather than as soon as it is claimed …” (as happens in Australia)

Senator Abetz’s speech is important because this is the first time in the Federal Parliament that someone has clearly staked out the need for reform of the ATO. It’s a sign that our parliamentarians are becoming sick of constantly hearing stories of the ATO’s abuse of taxpayers and that they want to see the ATO fixed.

We will keep you informed of developments.

Explosive, gobsmacking statements by Tax Commissioner raise serious concerns about democracy, the rule of law and cover-up

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Perhaps we thought we’d seen just about every ‘trick’ by the ATO, but the statements by the Tax Commissioner to the Senate on Wednesday (23 October) go to an entirely new level. The ATO ‘battle bar’ has just been raised, big time!

What has motivated the Commissioner is the ‘Right to Know’ public campaign being conducted by a large coalition of Australian media interests against the government’s suppression of free speech. This week ‘Right to Know’ released its first television/on-line advert. The opening ‘punch’ in the advert asserts that the ATO can take money directly out of people’s accounts “but you’re not allowed to know…”

The Tax Commissioner denies that the ATO does this. He said to the Senate  “We use garnishees and other firm actions only after these attempts to engage the taxpayer have failed.”

We can advise Senators that this statement by the Commissioner is wrong and misleading.

We have firm, documented evidence of at least one occasion where the ATO emptied someone’s bank account without telling that person. The person did not even know that the ATO had raised a debt against them. The person did not receive notice from the ATO until ten days after the ATO cleaned out their bank account. This evidence has been supplied to a formal government investigation into the ATO.

The Tax Commissioner went further. He attacked the two public ATO whistleblowers. He divulged highly personal information which, in the case of Richard Boyle, is subject to criminal court proceedings.

The printed version of The Commissioner’s statement is here. An online video version is available here. You can access the key comments in the video by going to the following time-marks:

(duration time) 01:03:00 — Commissioner denies Right to Know allegation of ATO taking money without people knowing.
(duration time) 01:06:30 — Commissioner begins attacking Richard Boyle.
(duration time) 01:15:20 — Commissioner claims IGT report cleared the ATO. (Note: This is untrue.)
(duration time) 01:22:00 — Commissioner finishes opening statement.
(duration time) 01:25:30 — ALP Senator Katy Gallagher asks questions.
(duration time) 01:28:30 — A shocked Senate Committee suspends proceedings to privately consider what to do.
(duration time) 01:37:45 — The hearing restarts. Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick makes comments.
(duration time) 01:46:20 — Finishes.

Note the restrained but shocked reaction of the Senators.

There has been massive media coverage. Including The Australian (‘Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan flays media over ‘whistleblower’ coverage’), The Age/SMH (‘Tax Commissioner attacks ‘out of control’ press over whistleblower reporting’), The Mandarin (‘ATO responds to press freedom campaign’),  the ABC (‘Tax boss Chris Jordan hits back at ATO whistleblowers and media reporting’), the AFR (‘ATO boss Chris Jordan attacks whistleblowers’), the SMH/Age (‘”Absolute devastation”: The whistleblower who will “never work again” after helping tax watchdog’), the SMH (‘ATO appalling in its treatment of public servant, says Fair Work Australia’)  and the SMH/Age (‘ATO’s Chris Jordan seeks to shoot the messenger’).

Following the Senate hearing, Greens Senator Whish-Wilson has asked for the Tax Commissioner’s statements to be ‘expunged’ from the official Hansard. The media report states that “Senator Whish-Wilson requested this happen given information provided by Mr Jordan ‘went beyond what was public knowledge’, was subject to pending court proceedings, and the individuals named had no immediate right of reply”. But can what has been said so publicly be ‘undone’? Justice is at stake!

It would be for a court to decide, but has the Tax Commissioner just made a fair trial for Richard Boyle now impossible? Has the course of justice been perverted under parliamentary privilege?

The behaviour of the ATO reminds us repeatedly of the banks denying financial misbehavior, the churches denying sexual abuse by clergy, large firms denying underpayment of workers and more. In those instances the large organizations’ behaviour seems to fit a set pattern which involves:

  • Denying the evidence of their bad behavior.
  • Attacking the people who expose the bad behavior.
  • Claiming the organization is nonetheless good.

Every time the pressure builds until there is an explosion. When that happens:

  • The truth overwhelms the denials by the large organization.
  • All hell breaks loose.
  • The top people in the organization are forced to resign or are sacked.
  • The task of cleaning up the organization begins.
Because the ATO is an arm of government, ‘all hell breaking loose’ will not happen until the government considers that the ATO is doing damage to it politically. Events are inevitably heading in that direction. The question is: How long will it take for the Morrison government to reach that conclusion?

We need your help to defend democracy from an aggressive ATO bureaucracy—Richard Boyle GoFundMe

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This is a very special appeal for your help to defend against the ATO small business bully.

We’re asking you to contribute to the legal defence fund for Richard Boyle, the ATO whistleblower. We consider Richard a hero for democracy. He exposed the truth about ATO abuse at great personal risk to himself and his family. We must support Richard.

Richard is facing a staggering 161 years in jail under ATO prosecution. Mass murderers don’t face this. It demonstrates the vindictiveness of the ATO.

Richard provided key evidence in the Four Corners exposé ‘Mongrel Bunch of Bastards’, which aired last year. The program triggered a tsunami of media, parliamentary and official reports that continued throughout 2018 and into this year—all confirming the ATO’s bullying behaviour.

The facts of Richard’s situation are as follows:

  • He worked for the ATO for some 13 years specialising in the debt-collection area. That’s the area where the ATO can take money from your bank account without your permission or knowledge. The ATO can do this if they think you owe money. No proof needed!
  • Richard witnessed the ATO undertaking aggressive and dubious processes to grab money.
  • He lodged an official, internal ATO report on this. He was told to shut up and ignore the ATO’s bad behaviour.
  • Richard then lodged an official report to the ATO investigator, the Inspector-General of Taxation and told his story on Four Corners.
  • The ATO raided his house and sacked him.
  • Now the ATO is prosecuting Richard.
  • The official Inspector-General’s Report confirmed Richard’s allegations of ATO misbehaviour as did several other official reports.

The ATO has a river of money to fund its prosecution of Richard. Richard is unemployed.

There are times when we must stand together. Otherwise democracy and the rule of law mean nothing. Richard is a hero. We need to stand with heroes. Richard deserves to have the funds to conduct a proper legal defence. That’s the least that we can do. Please give.

It doesn’t matter how small your contribution. But please give what you can afford.

You can donate to the GoFundMe campaign here.