Western Australian Senator Glenn Sterle has called on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to start a new taskforce to investigate sham contracting in the truck industry.
Sterle wrote to tax commissioner Rob Heferen after meeting with the ATO’s Parliamentary Services Team alongside NatRoad CEO Warren Clark and Queensland Trucking Association CEO Gary Mahon, urging the ATO to investigate the practice.
“Many decent, reputable and tax paying Australian businesses are now closing their doors and putting their gear (trucks, trailers, equipment etc) in the hands of auction houses,” Sterle says in the letter.
“They are doing this because they can’t compete on a level playing field because sham contracting and tax avoidance is pricing them out of the market.
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“While drivers engaged on ABNs receive an amount that may look attractive on the surface, under these sham contracting arrangements, employers who engage drivers on ABNs get away without paying workers’ compensation, holiday allowances, sick leave allowances, annual leave, long service leave or superannuation and they don’t collect tax.”
Australian Trucking Association (ATA) CEO Mathew Munro says the association supported Senator Sterle in calling for action.
“The ATA’s members have raised sham contracting as a significant concern. We absolutely support the formation of an ATO taskforce to look more closely at the extent of sham contracting and how to stop it,” he says.
“Regulators are best placed to take enforcement action when they have specific information. Anyone in the industry who is aware of sham contracting should report it.”
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