Chief Commissioner of State Revenue Scott Johnson told the hearing the regulator could not audit every business.
“This is not to be taken as a point about us being light on certain organisations, but we can’t audit every business,” he said.
“So why didn’t we go further with Domino’s? I’m not sure, I don’t know. But we collect the significant additional revenue for NSW through our compliance activity, which shouldn’t be understated.”
The proposed laws will increase penalties and remove the five-year statute of limitations on the government’s power to investigate companies.
“We’re pulling a lever we have at our disposal to send a clear message to businesses: do the right thing by your employees and the taxpayers of NSW or you will be caught out,” said NSW Finance Minister Damien Tudehope.
The committee heard Revenue NSW did not assess whether workers were being paid at the correct rate because it was not an industrial agency.
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State revenue commissioner Cullen Smythe said he was not aware of anyone working in-house with “the skill set to analyse [employee] awards”.
Upper house Greens MP David Shoebridge said Revenue NSW could not reasonably identify underpayment for tax or wages if they did not have anyone employed to discover wage theft.
“There’s a big chunk missing in your organisation [if] you don’t have those skills inside the office to work out what was in fact payable,” he said.
In February 2017 Domino’s Pizza Enterprises reported that 26 franchisees had been cut from the business over the prior three years, after wage compliance issues, including wages theft.
A company statement said Domino’s had no tolerance for wage theft and has publicly called for significant penalties for those responsible.
“Domino’s Pizza Enterprises has previously been audited for payroll tax compliance in NSW, which found the company’s payroll tax obligations had been met,” a spokesman said.
A Woolworths Group spokesman said it did not owe outstanding payroll tax, with all necessary tax paid on underpayment as part of its remediation process.
Luxottica, the parent company of Sunglass Hut, did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2020-21 Revenue NSW conducted 2267 payroll tax investigations, resulting in $183.6 million in revenue.
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Source: | This article originally belongs to smh.com.au
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