MEDIA RELEASE
Monday, 15 February 2010
ATO surprise visits get tick of approval
Commonwealth and Taxation Ombudsman Professor John McMillan today confirmed
that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) had established appropriate procedures for
exercising its coercive ‘access without notice’ powers.
The wide–ranging powers allow the ATO to enter a business or private premises without
the owner’s permission to examine and copy documents, relevant to an investigation,
that deal with income, indirect, pay as you go, fringe benefits and energy–related taxes
and superannuation.
Professor McMillan made his findings following a random audit in 2009 that included
observing a coordinated, simultaneous multi–site access without notice visit in several
states and a thorough review of various files and other documentation.
‘The ATO takes the use of its access without notice powers seriously and has
established a set of sound guidelines and manuals to assist its staff to apply the powers,’
Professor McMillan said.
‘It’s pleasing to note also that the ATO’s activities generally comply with the principles
outlined in the Administrative Review Council’s report The Coercive Information–
gathering Powers of Government Agencies and the Ombudsman’s Lessons for public
administration.
‘This is the second Ombudsman investigation into the ATO’s access without notice
powers in the past 10 years and it confirms that taxpayers can feel confident that the
ATO is exercising these powers in the manner in which it should.’
Professor McMillan said it was right and proper that the ATO used its access without
notice powers only in exceptional circumstances, defined by a genuine belief that
documents might be destroyed if notice was given, a well–founded concern that fraud or
evasion was occurring, or inappropriate secrecy by the taxpayer.
However, he suggested—and the ATO agreed—that the ATO’s commitment to public
accountability would be strengthened by:
greater transparency through, for example, reporting use of the powers in its
annual report
finetuning the Access and Information Gathering Manual, especially in relation to
the ATO’s excisable goods regulatory role
improving the electronic case management filing system.
The Ombudsman’s report, Australian Taxation Office: Use of access without notice
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Media contact:
Fiona Skivington, Director Public Affairs
0408 861 803
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