The ATO recently agreed to settle with eligible inbound tour operators (ITOs) that have treated their margins as being subject to GST. An ITO is not obliged to take up the offer.
The settlement offer If you are an eligible ITO and you want to take up the offer:
- The ATO will pay 75% of the GST you overpaid on your margins (subject to the four-year time limit for claiming GST refunds)*
- if you have an outstanding tax debt, the refund will be offset against this debt and only the balance (if any) will be paid to you
- you must account for 75% of the income tax payable on your margin.
Eligibility for settlement offer – To be eligible, you must:
- be up-to-date with your taxation lodgement obligations
- have records that substantiate your GST refund claims (which you can provide to us if requested)
- have acted as agent of your non-resident clients throughout the refund period (we will accept your self-assessment that you are an agent, unless we consider the assessment is clearly wrong).
Registering your interest – To register your interest to claim a refund, you or your authorised representative can contact us at: ITXICB@ato.gov.au
Due date – We intend to issue a public ruling in 2016 on the GST treatment of an ITO’s margin. The settlement offer will remain open until three months from the time we publish a draft of this ruling.
[ATO website] [LTN 1, 5/1/16]