Hello again, Since our last chat there have been one or two…

Hi,

My question was based on the example provided on the ATO website (in italics below) where "Paul" is not able to provide an ABN and is not registered for GST.

I have recently been having a discussion with a lawyer on this site about a real situation currently happening, where my wife, who works for a call centre at the Gold Coast, has recently had her ABN cancelled.
We are at a stalemate with the company, as my wife is apparently unable to work for them without an ABN, but if they dismiss her it would constitute unfair dismissal.

Example: Paul is self-employed and mows lawns for a living. His annual turnover is less than $50,000 so he does not have to register for the GST. However, he invoices Big Brother Enterprises who are part of the GST system.

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If Paul can provide an ABN number on his invoice he will be paid the full amount of the account.

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If Paul cannot provide an ABN number on his invoice, Big Brother Enterprises must withhold tax at 48.5% from any payment made to Paul. Paul is able to claim back the withheld amount when he lodges his annual income tax return

Hi,

We met with the company operations manager yesterday. He was accompanied by a Mr Corrigan of Platinum ER whose status was unclear, but is apparently an HR and IR specialist. It was agreed that my wife's status was unclear with regard to being in their office and actively earning income now that she and they are aware that she has no ABN. They are unwilling to continue her employment permanently on a TFN, but have not explicitly terminated her. We have stated unequivocally that she is not going to re-apply for an ABN or even make an objection on the basis of their employment contract for fear of the large penalties which apply if the ABR consider any proffered information to be misleading. Mr Corrigan has been authorised to make an objection on her behalf, on the proviso that he make no misleading statements. That is where we stand.

Everybody in her section ("Appointment Setters") is on ABN. They are all still working to the best of our knowledge.

They apparently did not know what to suggest!! Hence the attempt by Mr Corrigan to lodge an objection.

He represented the company. My wife authorised him to lodge an objection to the cancellation of her ABN with the provisos stated. We honestly do not expect him to be successful, and hence our feeling that we have a stalemate.

I suppose that depends on how long the ABR takes to process the objection.

We are very aware (as, I suspect is the company) that they are doing the wrong thing. However, the position, being commission based, can be well paid. Therefore we are trying to examine any reasonable way in which she could keep her job. Because she has not explicitly been terminated at this point (probably because the company know the jeopardy they would be in if they did) we think that an unfair termination action is premature.

No thanks - that has been very valuable and confirms what we already think.
Thank you very much for your help, and have a good evening :)