Is a taxpayer considered liable for relying on incorrect information posted to the ATO Community website when the answer is either provided by an ATO staff member, or 'certified'/endorsed by the ATO?
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The ATO have a ATO Community disclaimer that you can read HERE
Its a standard disclaimer which they also use for their website.
Amongst other things It states:
- Posts by ATO staff and/or posts that are endorsed as 'ATO certified' provide general information that aligns with information available on ATO.gov.au. Such posts are not public or private rulings, and should not be taken to be a substitute for professional advice for your specific situation.
- When we endorse content as 'ATO certified', we are committed to providing you with accurate, consistent and clear information to help you with your tax and super questions. If you follow our information and it turns out to be incorrect, or it is misleading and you make a mistake as a result, we will take that into account when determining what action, if any, we should take.
Now that may sort of sound great to some but in reality what happens is something different.
In all the years I have been dealing with the ATO the taxpayer was always considered liable for any tax liability that arose because of incorrect information published on their website or here, regardless of how incorrect that information was. The most I have ever seen the ATO do in such situations is to reduce the amount of penalties applied to NIL, but the taxpayers still had to pay a "General Interest Charge".... and their interest charge is very high in my opinion.
The only way you can get any type of total immunity from any ATO errors are if those errors are in a public or private ruling (yours), or in administrative binding advice (yours). Then the ATO is fully responsible and you will not have to pay any tax that you may have otherwise had to pay if they had given you the correct advice in the first place.
Yes there are errors on this forum and on the ATO website and if you know it is incorrect just ignore it otherwise you could find that it is more trouble than its worth.
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The ATO have a ATO Community disclaimer that you can read HERE
Its a standard disclaimer which they also use for their website.
Amongst other things It states:
- Posts by ATO staff and/or posts that are endorsed as 'ATO certified' provide general information that aligns with information available on ATO.gov.au. Such posts are not public or private rulings, and should not be taken to be a substitute for professional advice for your specific situation.
- When we endorse content as 'ATO certified', we are committed to providing you with accurate, consistent and clear information to help you with your tax and super questions. If you follow our information and it turns out to be incorrect, or it is misleading and you make a mistake as a result, we will take that into account when determining what action, if any, we should take.
Now that may sort of sound great to some but in reality what happens is something different.
In all the years I have been dealing with the ATO the taxpayer was always considered liable for any tax liability that arose because of incorrect information published on their website or here, regardless of how incorrect that information was. The most I have ever seen the ATO do in such situations is to reduce the amount of penalties applied to NIL, but the taxpayers still had to pay a "General Interest Charge".... and their interest charge is very high in my opinion.
The only way you can get any type of total immunity from any ATO errors are if those errors are in a public or private ruling (yours), or in administrative binding advice (yours). Then the ATO is fully responsible and you will not have to pay any tax that you may have otherwise had to pay if they had given you the correct advice in the first place.
Yes there are errors on this forum and on the ATO website and if you know it is incorrect just ignore it otherwise you could find that it is more trouble than its worth.
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