The penalty was issued on 12 August, after Print Applied Technology (PAT) failed at appeal to overturn an earlier decision.
The case at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia (AATA) in Melbourne centred on a 2009 deal for a second-hand Heidelberg Speedmaster, which Melbourne-based PrintLinx sold to Tasmanian sister company PAT, which was formerly the Printing Authority of Tasmania. At the time, Frank Todisco was a director of PAT and a previous director and shareholder of PrintLinx, according to AATA.
The tribunal documents showed that PAT agreed to buy the press for $3m plus GST, and Todisco personally issued a tax invoice for $3.3m.
However, before agreeing to finance the machine through a hire purchase facility, the Bank of Queensland enlisted an independent valuer, which reduced the valuation down to $1.9m.
The machine was then sold to PAT via Heidelberg for a total of $2.09m, including GST. However, PAT claimed an input tax credit of $300,000 in its BAS.
According to the AATA documents: “The auditor determined that the applicant [PAT] had acted recklessly because it had claimed input tax credits on a tax invoice that Todisco issued in respect of a transaction stated to be valued at $3m plus GST when in fact the value of the transaction was $1.9m plus GST.”
The AATA ruled that by disregarding the “significant risk” that a company under his directorship could file an incorrect BAS, Todisco’s actions were “clearly reckless”.
PAT was fined the base penalty rate of $150,000, but received a 20% reduction “to reflect the voluntary disclosure by the applicant’s tax agent in the course of the tax audit in August 2009”.
Todisco told ProPrint it was all “an honest mistake”.
“It was nothing to do with us [PrintLinx]. It was PAT. They do their own BAS, but because I was a director, I had to front [the tribunal],” he added.
Todisco said: “I told them that the printing industry can’t afford to cover such expensive fines.”
ProPrint reported in April this year that Print Applied Technology was now being run by son Peter Todisco.
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