Amendments to the director penalty regime

The Assistant Treasurer has released for public consultation an exposure draft of legislation which amends the tax law to better protect workers' entitlements to superannuation and strengthen director obligations. The main aspects of these amendments involve:

• expanding the director penalty regime to superannuation guarantee amounts;
• ensuring that directors cannot have their director penalties remitted by placing their company into administration or liquidation when unpaid Pay As You Go (PAYG) withholding or superannuation guarantee amounts remain unpaid three months after the due date; and
• restricting access to PAYG withholding credits for company directors and their associates where the company has failed to pay withheld amounts to the Commissioner of Taxation.

This exposure draft contains some important changes from the provisions that the Government withdrew from Parliament in November 2011 so that it could conduct further consultation with industry. The changes made as a result of those consultations are set out in a summary document.