In a recent address to the Tax Bar Association, the Tax Commissioner said the ATO was taking “a fresh look” at its compliance approaches. Given that the vast majority of taxpayers willingly comply with their obligations, Mr Jordan said it was logical that the ATO should focus more on encouragement and support rather than deterrence and enforcement; that it should design the system for the majority of people rather than the minority.
In the area of dispute management, the Commissioner said ATO staff from its previous Centres of Expertise have been posted out with Compliance teams and senior ATO dispute resolution people provide Continuing Professional Development sessions and clinics on legal processes like “facts and evidence gathering” for example.
Mr Jordan said the ATO would like to discuss with the legal profession and the judiciary the possibility of the ATO using declaratory relief. He said the ATO acknowledges there are benefits in using declaratory proceedings to try and resolve ambiguous points of law, without the need to go through an expensive litigation process. The ATO considers there are some types of disputes where seeking declaratory orders are appropriate. For example, for discreet questions dealing with elections and withholding issues. The ATO also believes there is scope to use declaratory proceedings before assessment, to try and resolve disputes earlier.
In an update, the Commissioner indicated that from about September 2015, the ATO will publish information about the tax affairs of large corporates with incomes above id=”mce_marker”00m. This information will relate to the 2013-14 income year and will include the entity’s name, ABN, total income, taxable income and income tax payable.
Mr Jordan said the ATO was about to commence co-designing a “Statement of Expectations” about what people can expect when they are in dispute with the ATO. The first discussion on this was held on 7 November 2014.
[FJM Note: See the paper by Jennifer Batrouney QC on declaratory relief in tax cases on the Tax Bar Association’s website – 5.11.14]
[LTN 221, 17/11/14]