Practice Update September 2025 – Camberwell Accountants

ATO to include tax ‘debts on hold’ in taxpayer account balances

• From August 2025, the ATO is progressively including ‘debts on hold’ in relevant taxpayer ATO account balances.
• Editor: A ‘debt on hold’ is an outstanding tax debt where the ATO has previously paused debt collection actions. Tax debts will generally be placed on hold where the ATO decides it is not cost effective to collect the debt at the time.
• The ATO is currently required by law to offset such ‘debts on hold’ against any refunds or credits the taxpayer is entitled to. The difficulty with these debts is that the ATO has not traditionally recorded them on taxpayer’s ATO account balances.

Click here for Practice Update September 2025