Ash Rad, managing director of NetSurplus Chartered Accountants is warning publicans and other hospitality operators to stay on top of their financial and regulatory obligations or face heavy penalties.
The specialist accounting firm stresses that staying above board from the outset, or even taking corrective steps now, can protect your business in the short term and secure its long-term success.
“We’ve seen far too many cases of restaurateurs, bar or pub owners starting out with the best of intentions, a ton of passion, and quite often a thriving business,” says Rad.
“Money absolutely pours in, it’s happy days, and there’s so much sloshing around it seems the good times will never end.”
However, when regulatory matters are left to slide, busy trade won’t stave off looming responsibilities, and can not only mean penalties for the businesses, but for individuals as well. Rad has seen play out all too often.
“We recently had a client who wasn’t complying with their superannuation and GST obligations. After continuously ignoring many reminders, the ATO issued a director penalty notice (‘DPN’) effectively making the director of that company personally liable for over $700,000 in GST and unpaid superannuation. The consequence of that is that now the director has to fund the debt out of their personal assets, or they are at risk of personal bankruptcy if they continue to ignore the debt after the DPN is issued.”
Rad says GST is a common theme when it comes to the shirking of statutory responsibilities. Frequently, people misunderstand their obligations and treat GST money as their own, putting it towards daily operations.
“Instead, the business should save GST collected on sales in a separate bank account,” he explains.
Further complicating the picture, Rad says true food cost and sale prices are routinely misconstrued.
“Most food items are GST free, but when unprocessed food is turned into consumable product, it attracts GST. The key is fully understanding and getting the right menu costings, with accurate pricing delivering a sustainable margin. Fail here and the gap between raw food and consumable product GST will cause cashflow issues.”
As for hoping the long arm of the regulators doesn’t arrive, Rad says it is always just a matter of time before the authorities come calling.
“It is frustrating when clients allow their affairs to get hopelessly into arrears,” he relates, “Because the longer you wait or ignore it, the harder it is to help. Avoiding the problem means it eventually spirals out of control.”
In one such case, a hospitality business required support after allowing the accumulation of a large tax debt. Combined with a pattern of failing to meet payment plans and obligations, and a history of poor reporting and compliance, it makes it difficult and sometimes not practical for a restructuring practitioner to negotiate debt restructuring with the ATO.
“It’s always best to be upfront, forthright, and to stay on top of the paperwork and the payments.”