Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) calls for greater consistency and transparency in how the ATO manages general interest charge (GIC) remissions.

Based on a CA ANZ survey of members in practice, an overwhelming 66% of members supported the Tax Ombudsman reviewing the remission of GIC as a high priority.

The submission highlights that members are experiencing inconsistent outcomes when applying for GIC remission, are being denied remission without proper explanation and are unable to apply for a review of the denial of remission without applying to the Federal Court. The high non-deductible GIC rate, is causing consternation with both tax agents and taxpayers – especially for those involved with small businesses.

The submission highlights three key areas members want improvement in the remission request process:

1. The ATO provides clear and transparent guidance

PSLA 2011/12 contains very high level commentary. The submission calls for the PSLA to contain detailed, practical and successful GIC remission examples based on the most common remission requests. The guidance should include the ATO’s criteria used to evaluate remission requests and demonstrate how the criteria apply to the examples.

2. Consistent application of the ATO guidelines 

This includes establishing a dedicated team with proper training to review, assess and respond appropriately to GIC submissions and providing tax agents with a fast key code to access this team.

3. The ATO provides clear, complete and relevant explanations for remission decisions

ATO explanations are brief and do not always relate to the information provided.