Cheeky Tradies Have Allegedly Been Putting Bunnings’ ABN On Their Invoices

In the grand scheme of tax fraud, this has got to be one of the better entries. According to The Australian, tradies have been listing the Bunnings Warehouse ABN on their invoices instead of their own, making it near impossible for the government to work out where the hell the money is actually going.

The Treasury’s black economy taskforce chairman Michael ­Andrew says that the ABN system as it currently exists isn’t working.

“People ask for an invoice or valid receipt and they get the name of the company, but they then get an ABN of someone else such as Bunnings: the result of which [is] you can’t trace then where the money really went,” Mr Andrew explained.

Of course, every tradesman goes to Bunnings. They get an invoice — the ABN’s up top.”

Look, you’ve got to admit that just nicking the ABN off your Bunnings receipt and whacking it on your own invoices is a pretty ballsy move, but apparently it’s actually pretty widespread. Mr Andrew says that “more than 40%” of invoices in the Northern Territory had Bunnings ABN on them, which seems large.

Obviously, the core of the scam here is that Bunnings revenues (and tax bill) are so large that a few quotes for landscaping jobs can just slip into the pile. And based on this report they are slipping into the pile.

CPA Australia’s policy head Paul Drum told The Australian that the entire ABN system needs a rejig – and not just because of dodgy tradies.

We have 3.5 million ABNs who have never lodged a tax statement or a tax return. We issued 180,000 ABNs last year to people on tourist visas who are not allowed to have an ABN. We’re seeing secretaries and receptionists out there with ABNs at the moment. So we have to basically work to put more integrity and governance around the issuing of ABNs and make sure that they’re something that is valued, not something which is just automatically issued.

My take? I reckon there’s a glorious tax fraud somewhere involving Bunnings ABN and the bulk ordering of supermarket snags. Don’t ask me how it actually works in practice. I just bloody know there’s shitloads of money to be made there.

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