ATO and Treasury return to tax disputes enquiry

THE Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and Treasury will re-appear before the House Tax and Revenue Committee tomorrow as part of its inquiry into tax disputes.

These agencies gave evidence to the first public hearing of the inquiry in July. Since then, the Committee has spoken to a wide range of taxpayers, tax agents, accountants, lawyers and professional associations.

Tomorrow’s hearing will allow the Tax Office and Treasury to respond to evidence received during the inquiry. Topics likely to be raised at the hearing include:

•the extent of independence when the ATO considers a taxpayer’s objection;
•the readiness of the ATO to engage with taxpayers during disputes;
•the robustness of ATO processes for findings of fraud and evasion, which remove the four and two-year time limits on amending assessments;
•how the general interest charge works during a dispute;
•the ATO’s performance indicators for disputes.

Committee chair John Alexander said the hearing will provide the committee with the opportunity to test some of the evidence and proposals that it received during the inquiry.

“We look forward to hearing the views and expertise of the ATO and the Treasury so the committee can make recommendations that allow the ATO to collect the revenue due, whilst demonstrating fairness and respect to taxpayers,” he said.

Public hearing
Wednesday 26 November 2014
Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House, Canberra

4:oopm   The Treasury and the Australian Taxation Office
5:30pm  Adjournment

The hearing will be broadcast live at: www.aph.gov.au/live.

For further information: please contact the committee secretariat by telephone 02 6277 4821, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or visit the committee website http://www.aph.gov.au/taxrev.

Media release date: 25 November 2014