The director of a small business company contacted our office in relation to the difficulties she was experiencing in trying to address her company’s debt with the ATO. The ATO had raised superannuation guarantee charge assessments and issued a director penalty notice (DPN) despite the director’s insistence that payments towards the debt had already been made.

The IGTO investigated the allocation of payments in the ATO’s systems, and provided independent assurance that her payments were made to the proper accounts, according to the ATO’s policies and procedures. However, as a result of our investigation of the complaint, the ATO reviewed the issue of the DPN and confirmed that it had accepted the director’s defence. Accordingly, the ATO withdrew the notice.