Two federal ombudsmen have joined forces to launch a scathing review of the Australian Tax Office and call on government agencies to act more fairly when they chase people for debts.
Two federal ombudsmen have joined forces to launch a scathing review of the tax office and call on government agencies to act more fairly when they chase people for debts.
These debts had effectively been written off. They disappeared and then reappeared many years later, along with hefty interest charges. "You can't have a one-size-fits-all . You can't have a tick-the-box approach. You need to actually recognise individual circumstances and particularly when people are experiencing financial trauma and stress."Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson said in 2009 his agency made specific detailed recommendations on how the ATO should improve its communication with taxpayers about decisions to write off or re-activate old debts but that this advice was not heeded.
He said the age of some debts made it difficult to verify or challenge them because people no longer held the relevant records. An ATO spokeswoman said the tax office understood that "in making these debts invisible to clients once they were placed on hold, it does come as a surprise to many ". She said: "It was never our intention to cause frustration or concern.", being pursued for a debt almost 15 years old, the ATO apologised to her and agreed to waive the interest charges. It is now up to the federal government whether it waives all the old debts entirely.
"It does come down to this failing to really think about the impact … on people, failure to put people at the centre of how you do public administration," Mr Anderson said.But the majority of the report is focused on what it regards as the tax office's failings. It notes that the ATO sometimes ignores the dire circumstances of people in financial hardship.
Ms Payne notes in the report that during the investigation, the ATO provided her office with advice that was contrary to its original decision and "confirmed on two occasions that the complainant's circumstances fell under serious financial hardship".
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