The tax office is once again perceived as the ‘bad cop’ on the beat and it’s the Albanese government that’s given it a mandate to go hard and recoup more than $50 billion in debt owed, most of it by small business.

The message is clear: the honeymoon period — extended during the COVID-19 pandemic — is now over for businesses.

During COVID lockdowns, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) was the key agency responsible for ensuring $89 billion of JobKeeper wage subsidies arrived on time to…