Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) has lodged a submission in response to the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) draft taxpayer concessions framework. The submission supports the ATO’s efforts to refresh its approach to providing taxpayer relief through taxpayer lodgment and payment deferrals, payment plans, remission of failure to lodge and interest charges.

There have been numerous member complaints relating to the ATO’s taxpayer relief concessions. CA ANZ has shared the key themes of these complaints with the ATO. Namely, CA ANZ members act in the best interests of their clients and organisations by ensuring compliance with tax laws. However, they need clear guidance and examples of how the ATO manages debts and taxpayer relief provisions, assurance that the provisions are applied consistently and complete explanations for decisions made. This type of transparency will provide administrative savings for the ATO, tax agents and taxpayers. 

CA ANZ welcomes the ATO’s stated aim to “to ensure that [its] settings are clear, consistent, transparent and aligned to the legislative intent [and desire] to make it easier for taxpayers and their representatives to identify when concessions might be available.”  

In this submission to the ATO, CA ANZ makes a number of suggestions for the ATO to achieve these goals, including: 

• The ATO makes publicly available its internal guidelines on how it considers and applies the taxpayer relief concessions 
• The ATO provides practical common examples of when taxpayer relief will be provided 
• The ATO has dedicated teams to deal with each area of taxpayer relief to improve the consistency of how the provisions are applied 
• The ATO provides clear and complete explanations for its decisions, as well as options for taxpayers to object 
• The ATO considers the application of the taxpayer relief provisions where taxpayers do not have control of third-party information 
• The ATO put systems in place to ensure that if taxpayers voluntarily prepay an estimate of tax, the prepayment is not refunded  

CA ANZ looks forward to further working with the ATO on how it will apply the concessions framework to its existing and new practice statements and guidelines.