Fundamentally, if someone has the privilege of being ‘in the room where it happens,’ with apologies both to Lin-Manuel Miranda and John Bolton, they should be bringing their best to the service of the Australian public. Not narrow, selfish and self-interested purposes.
UK NAO - Tackling tax evasion in high street and online retail Report – Value for money
Public has ‘long memory’ for PwC leaks and tax cheats says the new ATO chief. A pointed message to PwC that their misdemeanours are in the spotlight
Tax office issues $100 billion warning over outstanding debt
Commissioner's address to The Tax Institute's Tax Summit
2024
Commissioner of Taxation, Rob
Heferen's address to The Tax Institute's Tax Summit 2024.
12 September 2024
Commissioner's speeches
As agents, you have a unique role and influence in the system. A different influencer, perhaps, than one might see on social media or streaming platforms. But you have influence nonetheless.
Now, if you’re under a certain age a Kardashian might come to mind, or if you’re in my demographic you might be thinking about the Beatles. And as the ‘Taxman’, albeit hopefully a much more reasonable version than is portrayed in the song, I am a greatly interested in the influential reach you have with the more than 19 million taxpayers, clients and partners in Australia.
Public has ‘long memory’ for PwC leaks and tax cheats: ATO
Sep 12, 2024
The public does not respect big business and Rich Listers who scheme to
reduce their tax bills and will have a long memory for those found to be
abusing the rules, ATO
boss Rob Heferen says.
In frank comments about the PwC tax leaks scandal and a renewed crackdown on multinational tax minimisation, Mr Heferen said the public was fed up with powerful interests evading their liabilities at the expense of the Australian community as a whole.
Long memories: Commissioner of Taxation Rob Heferen. Peter Rae
He told the Tax Institute’s annual summit in Sydney that the PwC abuses showed public acceptance of behaviours “that seek to game the tax system or
circumvent taxes owed under Australian law” won’t be tolerated, particularly by
those seen as powerful or on the inside of power.
“In terms of the biggest and richest participants in Australian society,
there is now no admiration for the smartest schemes, but rather an expectation
to act in a way that is consistent with their privileged position,” he said on
Thursday.
“When this expectation is not met, the disappointment extends to their
advisers.
“While these scandalous and deceitful behaviours were likely to only belong
to a small subset, such behaviours have the potential to impact the community’s
confidence in the tax profession as a whole.
“As regulators, we have a long memory, but of course the Australian public
has an even longer one.”
Biggest crackdown
The PwC tax leaks scandal involved the firm’s former head of international
tax, Peter Collins, sharing with fellow partners confidential details about
federal tax changes designed to combat multinational tax avoidance.
PwC’s tax advisers used the information to win new clients, and they
separately developed structures that sidestepped the very laws that Collins was
helping the federal government to design.
The scandal led to the government tightening laws around tax advisers, in
what was described as the biggest crackdown on tax advisers in Australian
history.
The new
rules include imposing penalties of up to $780 million for tax promoter
breaches, new promoter penalties, changes to Tax Office secrecy and wider
powers for the Tax Practitioners Board.
Treasury is now consulting on a range of related reform, such as if the ATO
should be given additional investigation and information-gathering powers and
how the big four are structured and regulated.
Labor has also used the PwC tax leaks scandal to fulfil a campaign promise
to cut back the use of external consultants and contractors and to beef up the
public service.
Mr Heferen took over as Taxation Commissioner in March.
Before leading the ATO, Mr Heferen was chief executive of the Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare. He previously worked as deputy secretary of
Treasury’s revenue group and led the secretariat for the Henry tax review.
He has used the early months in the role to defend the ATO’s role as the
main collector of government revenue and has promised strong pursuit of more
than $50 billion in outstanding debt.
When the ATO’s broader debt book is considered, outstanding tax liabilities
total more than $100 billion. By comparison, total tax collections in Australia
in 2023-24 were about $600 billion.
New figures expected to be released in late October will show only 59 per
cent of the top 100 public and multinational taxpayers received the highest
level of compliance assurance from the ATO.
In the top 1000 group, while there have been “positive improvements” in
trends, Mr Heferen said only 34 per cent of taxpayers received the highest
assurance level. Those receiving the lowest level total 6 per cent.
Quoting Broadway hit Hamilton, Mr Heferen said those “in the room where it happens” should bring their best to the service of the Australian public and not “narrow, selfish and self-interested purposes.”
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