Over the last five years, as a member of the Tax and Revenue Committee, I have personally witnessed how the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has undertaken considerable reform and restructuring. The aim of these changes has been to deliver better service to customers, that being tax payers, and improve the efficiency of the administration of the tax system.
However, as with all the best laid plans of mice and people, the ATO has along with the rest of us been thrown a number of curve balls. Along with state-based agencies like Service NSW, the ATO’s response has demonstrated the importance of investing in rigorous systems and institutional strength continuously and not waiting until crises hit.
There are many who complain about the ATO, and let us face it tax collectors have never been popular from Jesus’s time onwards, however, I believe I speak on behalf of the entire committee in thanking the ATO, its leaders, teams and staff for their considerable efforts on behalf of our nation to ensure that when we were faced with the chasm of COVID, all of us were able to get to the other side.
Having said that, of course, we now expect more. It is the nature of elected parliaments.
This report highlights a number of legislative frameworks that the government should change in order to provide tax payers with better service. Key recommendations in this report are borrowed from observations out of the United States. These include upgrading the Inspector General of Taxation to an office modelled on the Taxpayer Advocate developed in the United States. Secondly, changes be made to legislation that gives taxpayers the same protections enjoyed by all other citizens when dealing with debts, namely it is not payable until it has been proved, and cannot be collected until that time. Further, the onus of proof should lie not with the tax payer but with the ATO.
The scope and reach of the ATO is rarely understood much less appreciated. There are a number of its functions that are neglected, for example, its role over not-for-profits and charities, and the registries functions (which, thankfully is now being modernised).
The Australian Charities and Not For Profit Commission (ACNC) is primarily tasked with ensuring that Australians are donating to ethical organisations that use donations for their intended purpose, not on marketing and events. Too often in the past we have found charities spending over 90 per cent of their funds on marketing instead of breast cancer research. Alternatively, organisations such as the Catholic School system find themselves scrutinised by four separate regulators, including the ACNC, and use considerable resources of the ACNC in their oversight capacity. It may assist the ACNC to provide Parliament with recommendations about the level of scrutiny given to different organisations in its remit especially in instances where they are already being actively regulated, while others remain free of much oversight.
Reform in the business registry area would deliver significant productivity gains for working Australians. Registries, when modernised, could allow people to predict pheonixing rather than leaving it in the hands of departments and agencies to shut the gate once the horse has bolted.
This report strongly advocates that the government build on the registries function to build world class data sets, to look to a number of the land registries in the states and how they have modernised their function, use blockchain technology to ensure security and protect Australians from cyberattack. Finally, to look to leverage the expertise once built and allow it to be deployed for functions such as carbon credits and allocations. There is considerable expertise waiting to be deployed in this area for these outcomes, a renewed push in this area has potentially outsized impacts for the Australian Economy. We encourage urgent intent in this area to get ahead of the global curve.
Mr Jason Falinski MP
Chair