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Thursday, September 12, 2024

Public has ‘long memory’ for PwC leaks and tax cheats: ATO

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.

           ~ The Room Where It Happens 


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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

Tom McIlroy and Edmund Tadros

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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Tom McIlroy is the Financial Review's political correspondent, reporting from the federal press gallery at Parliament House. Connect with Tom on Twitter. Email Tom at thomas.mcilroy@afr.com
Edmund Tadros leads our coverage of the professional services sector. He is based in our Sydney newsroom. Connect with Edmund on Twitter. Email Edmund at edmundtadros@afr.com.au




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