We may place a debt on hold if we decide it's not cost effective to collect the debt at the time.
When a debt is on hold, we pause taking actions to collect it and won't contact your clients to pay their debt. However, the law requires us to use any credits or refunds that become available to reduce it. This is called offsetting.
Previously when debts were placed on hold, they were not included in account balances. From August 2025, we're progressively including debts placed on hold in account balances. Currently, we are not including debts placed on hold before 1 January 2017 that may be impacted by the proposed law change into account balances.
Once your client’s debt on hold has been included in their account balance, you’ll be able to see what amounts they owe so you and your client can keep track of their tax debt. You can view the details of their debt on hold in online services for agents or their statement of account.
How we'll notify taxpayers
If you have clients with debts on hold of $100 or more, you or your client will receive a letter before it’s added to their account balance. You'll also be able to view your client's letter through communication history in online services for agents. Clients with a debt on hold of less than $100 will not receive a letter, but the debt will be included in their account balance in ATO online services.
If your clients have a debt on hold and are already on a payment plan for another debt, we will contact you before we include their debt on hold in their account balance.
Applying general interest charge
We remit the general interest charge (GIC) that is applied to debts on hold when they are not included in account balances. This means taxpayers have not been charged GIC for this period. Once your client’s debt on hold has been included in their account balance, we will continue to remit GIC for an additional 6 months. After this, GIC will start to apply.
Taxpayers have the option to pay part or all of their debt on hold at any time, which will reduce the GIC that will apply 6 months after their debt on hold is included in their account balance.
We have updated our web content with more information about debts on hold and their inclusion in account balances.