---
title: Record-keeping education in lieu of ATO financial penalties
description: small business and unintentional record-keeping mistakes, may soon need to complete a record-keeping education course instead of paying penalties.
---

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# [Record-keeping education in lieu of ATO financial penalties](https://news.spryroughley.com.au/insights/record-keeping-education-in-lieu-of-ato-financial-penalties)

 Written by [Spry Roughley](https://news.spryroughley.com.au/insights/author/spry-roughley) | Apr 14, 2022 3:56:00 AM

If you run a small business and are found by the ATO to have made unintentional record-keeping mistakes, you could face having to pay an administrative penalty. However, this could soon change under a proposed new law that would give ATO the power to issue a direction to complete an approved record-keeping education course instead. Legislation to implement this measure has been introduced into Parliament but not yet passed.

This proposed change originated as a part of the Black Economy Taskforce’s final report, which found that tax-related record-keeping obligations should be made clearer for businesses, and that the ATO should have a range of administrative sanctions available at its discretion for breaches of the rules.

Under the proposed new law, the ATO may issue a tax-records education direction in appropriate situations, which will require the appropriate person within a business to take a specified, approved course of education and provide the ATO with evidence of completion. This would be applied in circumstances where the record-keeping mistakes were unintentional, due to knowledge gaps or variations in levels of digital literacy, or where the ATO reasonably believes that the entity has made a genuine attempt to comply with their obligations.

The tax-records education direction would not be available to businesses that deliberately avoid record-keeping obligations. In those cases, financial penalties will still be applied, and if there is evidence of serious non-compliance, the ATO may also consider criminal sanctions.

[View full post](https://news.spryroughley.com.au/insights/record-keeping-education-in-lieu-of-ato-financial-penalties)

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