Large Australian businesses will welcome increased certainty around the Australian Taxation Office's (ATO) risk reviews and audits of their financial practices, following the release today of the Inspector-General of Taxation's Report into the Australian Taxation Office's large business risk review and audit policies, procedures and practices (the Report).
In releasing the Report, the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten, said "I'd like to thank the Inspector-General and all the stakeholders who contributed to this report, which will provide greater clarity and focus for the ATO in how they conduct risk reviews and audits of large businesses."
The Inspector-General made 28 recommendations in the Report. The Report's recommendations are directed at improving the ATO's compliance approaches, risk hypothesis identification, project management and accountability, information gathering approaches, audit and risk review processes, position paper processes and interest and penalties treatment. The Report specifically focuses on:
- The ATO's comprehensive and specific issue audits, client risk reviews and related processes and behaviours
- The ATO's audit and risk review product framework and related management
- How large business' expectations around how audits and risk reviews should be handled so as to promote their timely, efficient and fair resolution.
The ATO agrees-in-full with 22 of the recommendations, agrees-in-principle with two recommendations, agrees-in-part with one recommendation and disagrees with three recommendations.
"I anticipate these recommendations will improve the administration of the tax system for large Australian businesses," Mr Shorten said.
The Inspector-General's report, including the ATO's response, is available at www.igt.gov.au.