Inquiry into Mass Marketed Tax Effective Schemes and Investor
Protection
The Chair of the Economics References Committee, Senator Shayne Murphy,
today announced that the Committee has agreed to publish all submissions
made to the inquiry, with the exception of those whose authors requested
confidentiality. A list of published submissions is available from the
Committee Secretariat on request.
Senator Murphy said that the bulk of the submissions concentrated on
the third term of reference, namely the ATO's approach towards and role
in relation to mass marketed tax effective schemes. Over the last two
years the ATO has issued thousands of amended assessments to people who
invested in these schemes, so it was not unexpected that many of these
people would write to the Committee taking issue with the ATO's actions.
Senator Murphy said that the weight of submissions reveals the breadth
of the MMS market and also shows that the endemic poor level of understanding
of the self assessment tax system is apparently not limited to investors.
In many cases, accountants, financial advisers and other tax 'professionals'
are barely any wiser about basic and common place matters such as S 221D
variations and the standard ATO practice of making initial assessments
on the face value of returns.
Submissions received to date were somewhat limited in relation to the
first two terms of reference. While the Committee received a number of
quality submissions on these two terms of reference, the Committee considers
that it needs more information about the present state of investor protection
and role of designers, promoters and advisers. "If the inquiry is
going to generate recommendations to prevent the continuation of the mass
marketed scheme problem, then stronger evidence will be needed."
Accordingly, the Committee intends to target a number of key bodies and
players in a position to provide a comprehensive view of these matters.
The Committee will also be taking further steps to identify scheme designers
and promoters, who were conspicuously absent from the submissions received.
Senator Murphy concluded that the Committee intends to start its public
hearing program next month, on 11 December. Initially the Committee will
be hearing from the ATO and ASIC.
For further information, contact the Committee Secretariat on 02 6277
3540 or e-mail: economics.sen@aph.gov.au.
7 November 2000
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