joninoxford

Hi there,
I emmigrated back in 2004 to Australia and prompty bought a house. I lived in it for a 14 months and sold it at a slight profit.

Two days ago the Australian Tax Office contacted me and said I owe $23500 for capital gain tax for that sale and said they need payment "today"! Being a primary school teacher that is nearly half my yearly salary. I had submited a tax return by mail in 2005 and it appears they either lost it or it didn't arrive. As it was my family home I should not have to pay anything, but they want bills and rates notices from the time as proof I was living there which I no longer have!

Most of the 25k is interest and fines..... so be on your guard that it doesnt happen to you and keep every rate notice, letter and receipt! Can anybody recommend a good tax person in Melbourne? Any tips? I am hoping to get all if not most of it waived as it was my principle residence - just proving it is the problem. I have in the meantime agreed to pay off $2000 a month until I can prove I lived there.
Cheers
Jonathan

JAJ

At least three mistakes here, 1. not keeping proof that you filed a return (normally there is a 5 year statute of limitations, as far as I know), 2. not following up when you presumably didn't receive a Notice of Assessment or a tax refund in 2005, and 3. throwing away all your paperwork that proves where you lived at the time.

Alan Collett is located near Melbourne (search forum for contact detail) and can probably help you work with the ATO to get the interest and penalties mitigated or removed. But you will have to pay for assistance. And you will have to be resourceful and get some evidence it was your residence at the time. Are you really saying you have nothing - no old drivers licence, no bank statements, no utility bills, nothing at all?

joninoxford

Hi Jaj

Thanks for the reply. I had all my records destroyed last year after 6 years storage in my shed - rats got in and ripped everything to shreds! There were literally just some rat urine soaked shreds of paper left. I do have online evidence though including:
Ebay purchases
Amazon purchases
Photos, emails from family talking about my house with address in the email...
And I am hoping bank details for the area in the bank still has records from 2004 showing I was living there. Also contacting water company and seeing if they can print off the old bills.
The ATO is assuming it was an investment property. So hopefully they believe me....

Bermudashorts

Wouldn't ATO themselves know what your address was too? They send correspondence to me.

pumpkin blossom

Good point.

JAJ

ATO would know, probably also Medicare, state drivers licence agency and also Centrelink (if benefits have been claimed).

A Statutory Declaration describing the situation + an explanation of why documents were lost may help. But an individual is still expected to be resourceful enough to find some other evidence to support the Statutory Declaration.

There is an appeal/review process if agreement cannot be reached with the ATO. I am not sure if it's a good idea to start making payments unless that these are clearly done under protest. Strongly recommend professional assistance.

pumpkin blossom

I must admit, there is no way I would be paying a penny of this until it was all sorted.
And why has it taken them so long to contact you? Surely you have done a tax return each year so they should have know where to contact you.

Did you get the first home owners grant thingy? I believe you could only get that if you were living there yourself.

Pomster

we inherited some money in UK which we transferred over to help buy our house in 2005.

Last year we received a tax demand from ATO, which erred on the side of ' you had that money for ages and earned loads of interest'. They start with the max (and add interest to it) and wait for you to prove otherwise.

We did prove that we had had this money in the UK for weeks rather than years, so the demand was reduced hugely.