ATO Assistant Commissioner Jarred Needham said: "Honest businesses and the community expect us to work together to detect and disrupt phoenix behaviour."
‘Australia now has a billion-dollar alcohol black market’, ATO data reveals
November 03, 2026
By Samuel Ord
Group, owner of ABC Bullion and one of Australia's largest precious metals businesses, has quietly settled its long-running legal dispute with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), ending more than a decade of litigation
The Australian Taxation Office has quietly pulled a number of web pages relating to its family trust tax distribution rules, after denying it was pursuing Australian families and small businesses over historic paperwork errors.
After coming under fire during a Senate estimates hearing last month over its delayed credit card payment ban and claims of a covert raid on family trustholders, the ATO has taken down two bulletins on FTDT and delisted a transcript from Assistant Commissioner Amy James Velagic.
In a now deleted bulletin, the ATO noted it had seen an uptick in GTDT related issues due to “inadequate record keeping, succession planning, intergenerational expansion of businesses and evolving private groups”.
The web page also noted that the tax commissioner had “no discretion to ignore the application of the historic tax rules” and could not limit the period over which FTDT applies.
Another page detailing the ATO’s interest amnesty offer, which allows trustholders to self-assess potential breaches and only face 20 per cent of the general interest charge, was also pulled.
That amnesty period is set to expire the day before the government’s three-year rollover relief window opens, when businesses and families are likely to restructure out of discretionary trusts into company or fixed unit trusts to avoid the minimum 30 per cent tax.
This means those who uncover old errors during this period will be potentially liable for the full general interest charge.
The ATO was approached for comment over both the deleted web pages and the amnesty date but had not responded by the time of publication.
Despite testimony from ATO Second Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn that the tax office did not have a “compliance strategy or project” in relation to FTDT or family trust elections, the issue is listed as a “priority area” for the ATO.
“We’re concerned there’s a lack of awareness about the compounding nature of FTDT, which is resulting in significant liabilities, so we want to help taxpayers get it right,” the ATO says on its website.
In a now delisted interview with the ATO assistant commissioner, the tax office conceded it was concerned about a “lack of understanding by taxpayers and their advisers” about the historic tax rules.
The transcript also notes a lack of awareness about the compounding nature of FTDT which is “resulting significant liabilities”.
Despite examples of historic FTDT liabilities of $47,000 ballooning to a bill of $890,000 as a result of the compounding general interest charges, Mr Hirschhorn told Senate estimates last month that no trust-holders who had fallen foul of the rules had yet been forced into bankruptcy.
Tax consultancy firm RSM Australia has raised concerns that small to medium business are being caught by the tax rules and penalised for “administrative and technical errors, in circumstances involving no mischief whatsoever”.
Mr Hirschhorn last month claimed the penalties were “deliberately set at a harsh level” to stop people from abusing family trust elections.
What has become clear over the last couple of years is that many family groups and their advisers have done things inconsistent with their family, trust elections, and have potentially triggered those harsh consequences,” he said.
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THOMAS HENRYREPORTER
Thomas Henry is a reporter for The Australian's Canberra press gallery bureau. He joined the masthead after graduating from the 2025 cadet program and holds a Bachelor of Economics from Sydney University.
