The House of Reps Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue on Mon 24.11.2014, tabled its report 2013 Annual Report of the Australian Taxation Office: Second Report.
The Report said the ATO has made progress on many of the issues raised by the Committee during the first public hearing of its inquiry. Committee Chairman John Alexander said he commended the ATO for its introduction of streamlined key performance indicators, its commitment to estimate the Tax Gap (the difference between tax legally payable and tax actually collected) and its efforts to address the findings of the Australian Public Service Commission’s Capability Review. The ATO had in its submission advised that it would work to extend its Tax Gap estimations to cover all taxes administered by the ATO (it currently covers GST and LCT).
The Committee said it plans to next meet with the ATO and its scrutineers in early 2015 and requested that the ATO’s submission provide information on progress in a number of areas including:
- providing light or no-touch tax returns;
- transferring the Tax Agent Portal to a new platform;
- refining the Lodgment Program for tax agents;
- update on the tax implications of crowdfunding;
- any additional consideration of s 25-90 of the ITAA 1997;
- evolution of the Tax Gap measurements;
- the implementation of the ATO’s Capability Action Plan;
- budget and staff reductions, including regional offices.
[LTN 227, 24/11/14]