The report of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit (JCPAA) on the ATO’s administration of the tax system was tabled in the House of Reps on Mon 26.11.2012. Entitled Report 434: Annual public hearing with the Commissioner of Taxation – 2012, the report marks the 10th time the Committee has conducted a public hearing with the Tax Commissioner, and is the first report made on an annual basis.
- Committee Chair Rob Oakeshott reported that the findings of the report were broadly positive and that the ATO had improved its service standards during the peak tax time.
- However, Mr Oakeshott also noted that complaints to the Commonwealth Ombudsman about ATO administration were at “a 10-year high”, and that the Ombudsman had found occasional faults in ATO complaint handling. In this regard, the Committee made recommendations to improve complaints handling.
- Overall, the Committee made 7 recommendations.
Other issues examined by the Committee included: ATO interactions with small business; ATO approach to debt recovery; the lack of a “tax gap” estimate; and the question of broader tax reform.
[LTN 229, 26/11]