Annual Compliance Arrangements with Large Corporate Taxpayers
Management of disclosures and issues
Download 1.48 Mb. View original pdf
|
| Management of disclosures and issues 4.35 The second concept that ACAs are built around is a commitment to ongoing disclosure of tax risk, and the ToA establishes the guidelines for disclosures of tax issues throughout the year. Analysis of the 24 ToAs revealed that the disclosure guidelines were relatively consistent across ACAs. Generally, taxpayers must disclose details of existing, emerging and new material tax risks as soon as practicable. To be characterised as a tax risk, it ANAO Report No 2014–15 Annual Compliance Arrangements with Large Corporate Taxpayers 84 disclosure. The ANAO was also notable to verify this information during the analysis of the ATO’s electronic case management system files. 4.39 For GST and excise, the 17 taxpayers with ACAs covering GST and/or excise in 2013–14 made 53 disclosures (an average of approximately three disclosures per taxpayer. The ATO extracted this information through a manual process. ATO officers involved in the administration of the ACAs reviewed the taxpayers case management files and identified records such as voluntary disclosures of tax shortfalls, ruling requests or issues recorded in the maintenance review case (discussed later. This figure does not include the ACA taxpayer disclosures that may have been made outside the maintenance review case and recorded as a client interaction on the case management system. 4.40 Similarly, for disclosures made by FBT taxpayers in an ACA, the ATO has not drawn this information together in a consistent and systematic way. Instead, to extract this information involved a manual process of searching through a taxpayer’s files. The ATO advised that the eight FBT taxpayers made two disclosures in 2013‒14. 4.41 When disclosures are made by ACA taxpayers, the ATO’s process is to risk assess each disclosure and develop mitigation strategies for those disclosures perceived as high risk. The ATO provided examples to demonstrate the risk assessment of disclosures. These examples show that a variety of approaches are adopted depending on the nature of the disclosure. For disclosures which are relatively immaterial and/or low risk, ATO records show that the disclosure is considered and a record of the risk assessment maybe made, for example in an email. For disclosures that are material, a more formal process is adopted. This includes developing assessment reports which outline the disclosure and significance and mitigation strategies, which may include further formal compliance activities such as comprehensive risk reviews and audits. Mitigation strategies are discussed further at paragraph 4.57. Download 1.48 Mb. Share with your friends:
|