From 1 July 2019, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will introduce taxable payments reporting requirements for the following industries

  •  security providers and investigation services;
  •  road freight transport; and
  •  computer system design and related services.

The building industry, cleaning and courier businesses are already required to provide taxable payments reporting to the ATO.

The taxable payments reporting system requires businesses to report payments they make to contractors. Contractors can include subcontractors, consultants and independent contractors operating as sole traders (individuals), companies, partnerships or trusts.

Businesses will need to start collecting information on payments to contractors from 1 July 2019.The first annual report is required by 28 August 2020.

For reporting purposes, the ATO will include all security, investigation and surveillance services.

  • Security – protection from, or measures taken against, injury, damage, espionage, theft, infiltration or sabotage. That includes anti-burglary, locksmith, body guards, security guards, armoured cars and any other services which can be provided to protect individuals or property.
  • Investigation services – a searching inquiry in order to ascertain facts that is typically conducted by a detective or an enquiry agency and may be matters not necessarily related to security. It does not refer to any services which may be used to gather information such as online search engines.
  • Surveillance services – a general watch or observation maintained over an area or location, by one or more persons or by using devices such as motion detector alarms, cameras or recorders. This includes night watch services, alarm monitoring and services that involve the use of closed-circuit television cameras for the purpose of surveillance or maintaining security”.

A business may not be required to complete a taxable payment annual report if the total payments received for security services for the financial year is less than 10% of the current or projected GST turnover or that you have not paid any contractor for security services..

The ATO website provides a range of information on Taxable payment annual report (TPAR) requirements.

SPAAL will update members on the Taxable payment annual report (TPAR) requirements for security prior to the commencement on 1 July 2019.