Annual Compliance Arrangements with Large Corporate Taxpayers
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| Conclusion 2.39 The ATO has a framework for administering ACAs, based around the compliance teams in the three responsible BSLs with oversight from a coordinating committee. While the ACA Oversight Committee has discharged many of its responsibilities, it has been slow to progress initiatives designed to strengthen the ATO’s administration of ACAs and to provide consistency in practices across BSLs. There would be benefit in the Committee reviewing the The ATO issued a practice statement in 2011 dealing with ‘U-turns’. The statement requires ATO staff not to devote compliance resources to implementing a changed view of the law retrospectively. Some taxpayers suggested that the 2013 Federal Court decision in the Macquarie Bank case had cast legal doubt on the ATO’s ability to give effect to this principle outlined in the practice statement. The ATO, however, considers it has considerable practical scope to use the statement and is committed to the principles in it. Speech by the Commissioner of Taxation Reinventing the ATO’, delivered at the Tax Institute of Australia 29 th National Convention, 27 March 2014, Hobart. 69 Inspector-General of Taxation, Review into Improving the Self Assessment System, August 2012, pp. 99–100. Taxpayers can apply to the ATO fora private ruling. A private ruling is binding advice that sets out how a tax law applies to a taxpayer in relation to a specific scheme or circumstance. The ATO must administer the law in the way set out in the ruling, unless it later finds the ruling is incorrect and that applying the law correctly would lead to abetter outcome for the taxpayer. ANAO Report No 2014–15 Annual Compliance Arrangements with Large Corporate Taxpayers 54 training and guidance material provided to officers managing ACAs in light of feedback from recent reviews about the core ACA terms, the operation of the ACA and its interaction with other ATO compliance arrangements. 2.40 Management reporting provides BSL executives with useful and timely information about the key issues and outputs associated with ACAs, and external reporting is appropriate to the scale of ACAs. However, ACAs were introduced six years ago, and the ATO has not yet systematically evaluated their effectiveness in providing the benefits envisaged. It is intended that an internal evaluation, due to be completed in late, will report on the level of effectiveness of income tax ACAs. However, the evaluation needs to be broadened to include the other taxes as was originally envisaged. 2.41 Indications from ATO reviews, and ANAO consultation with ATO officials and stakeholders for this audit, are that ACAs have delivered benefits to participating taxpayers through higher levels of service and increased certainty of tax positions for more straightforward matters. However, although the actual costs of administering ACAs are not known, ATO and ACA holders consider administrative demands to have been relatively high. ANAO Report No 2014–15 Annual Compliance Arrangements with Large Corporate Taxpayers 54 training and guidance material provided to officers managing ACAs in light of feedback from recent reviews about the core ACA terms, the operation of the ACA and its interaction with other ATO compliance arrangements. 2.40 Management reporting provides BSL executives with useful and timely information about the key issues and outputs associated with ACAs, and external reporting is appropriate to the scale of ACAs. However, ACAs were introduced six years ago, and the ATO has not yet systematically evaluated their effectiveness in providing the benefits envisaged. It is intended that an internal evaluation, due to be completed in late, will report on the level of effectiveness of income tax ACAs. However, the evaluation needs to be broadened to include the other taxes as was originally envisaged. 2.41 Indications from ATO reviews, and ANAO consultation with ATO officials and stakeholders for this audit, are that ACAs have delivered benefits to participating taxpayers through higher levels of service and increased certainty of tax positions for more straightforward matters. However, although the actual costs of administering ACAs are not known, ATO and ACA holders consider administrative demands to have been relatively high. ANAO Report No 2014–15 Annual Compliance Arrangements with Large Corporate Taxpayers 55 Download 1.48 Mb. Share with your friends:
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