Annual Compliance Arrangements with Large Corporate Taxpayers
Resourcing arrangements for administering ACAs
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| Resourcing arrangements for administering ACAs 2.14 The ATO has not sought additional funding through the budget processes to support the introduction and ongoing management of ACAs, and no staff are allocated solely to their administration. Rather, ACAs are supported as part of the work of staff in the ATO’s compliance teams. 2.15 As at 30 May 2014, data provided by the ATO indicated that 26.5 full time equivalent staff (FTE) were working on the administration of ACAs: 18 FTE for income tax, six for GST and excise, two for PRRT and 0.5 for FBT. 2.16 The ATO’s expectation that there would be a reduction overtime in the resources necessary to manage ACAs has generally not materialised. Rather, there has been a fairly constant and relatively high workload associated with the annual sign‐off process, and when renewing arrangements. For example, a compliance team managing an ACA advised the ANAO it had become a de facto lead relationship manager for the ATO in dealing with the company, which can be time consuming 53 Administration of ACAs is discussed in Chapter 4. 54 A later section in this chapter, and Chapters 3 and 4, discuss aspects of the resource imposts of ACAs for the ATO and taxpayers. ANAO Report No 2014–15 Annual Compliance Arrangements with Large Corporate Taxpayers 46 Training and guidance 2.17 The ATO provides guidance material on its intranet on the use of the case management system 55 for managing ACAs. Each BSL has different products in the case management system for their respective ACAs and the training provided to staff across the BSLs has been variable over the years. ATO officials advised that during the ACA pilot stage, the PG&I BSL developed a one‐day training package for staff, as well as an information kit for visits by SES officers to the top 100 companies. The ATO advised that for the Client Relationship Managers 56 in the ITX BSL, a three‐day training course is available which includes information on ACAs. For PRRT, documents were produced outlining the broad context of where the ACAs fit into the business, guiding principles, deliverables and interactions with the taxpayer. 2.18 Nearly half the compliance officers interviewed 57 during the audit advised that they had not received specific ACA training. Rather it has been a matter of learning on the job with the help of the instruction material on the intranet and advice from the ACA Oversight Committee Secretariat as required. 2.19 While representatives of large corporate taxpayers interviewed by the ANAO were generally satisfied with the level of service provided by ATO staff managing their ACA, several cited issues when there had been a change of manager. Overtime, professional relationships had been established and matured. Download 1.48 Mb. Share with your friends:
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