IGT’s 10th Anniversary Booklet
The Inspector-General of Taxation celebrated 10 years of service to the Australian community in 2013. To mark this occasion, the IGT released a booklet which provided the community with a simple and easy to understand guide about the IGT office and its functions at the time.
About us
The Inspector-General of Taxation (IGT) is an independent statutory officer appointed by the Federal Government. The IGT is supported by a staff of dedicated professionals with strong taxation knowledge and experience. Our mission is to: Improve the administration of federal taxes for the benefit of all Australians.
“Establishing the Inspector-General will… strengthen the advice given to government in respect of matters of tax administration.
The Inspector-General will provide a new source of independent advice to the government. The role will act as an advocate for all taxpayers, including Australian business and will provide an avenue for more effective conflict resolution than currently exists.”
Second Reading Speech for the Inspector-General of Taxation Bill The Hon Peter Costello Treasurer 19 September 2002
Our outcomes
Our mission, to improve tax administration, is realised through our independent advice in 3 ways:
- policy recommendations to Government for consideration
- administrative recommendations to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
- informal advice through day-to-day interactions with the ATO.
Our strategy
The IGT strategy for delivering independent advice for improvement is to:
- Consult with the community to ensure tax administration issues are identified
- Conduct reviews into the identified issues
- Develop a deeper understanding of the issues and advise on improvement options
- Report publicly on review outcomes, observations and recommendations for improvement.
Our motto: CONSULT · REVIEW · ADVISE · IMPROVE
The IGT strategy for delivering independent advice for improvement is to:
- Consult with the community to ensure tax administration issues are identified
- Conduct reviews into the identified issues
- Develop a deeper understanding of the issues and advise on improvement options
- Report publicly on review outcomes, observations and recommendations for improvement.
Our motto: CONSULT · REVIEW · ADVISE · IMPROVE
Our Challenge
The IGT is an independent scrutineer focused on systemic tax administration issues. The ATO provides the vital community service of administering the federal tax system, including the collection of revenue. It is a natural monopoly provider of this service. While sound reasons necessitate such an approach, taxpayers cannot change providers if the service does not meet expectation. Taxpayers may not wish to raise issues out of concern that this key relationship may be adversely affected or they may feel that their concerns are not being adequately considered. The IGT facilitates a way through this asymmetry. First, the IGT is independent of the ATO and ensures that the confidentiality of all stakeholder submissions are maintained. Second, the IGT’s strong access powers over the ATO provide transparency and openness on all matters. Third, a constructive relationship with the ATO is carefully balanced to ensure the IGT’s independence is maintained in the reviews. A degree of tension should always exist between an administrator and scrutineer. Such tension, professionally managed, is entirely appropriate to maintain community confidence in both the IGT and ATO service delivery.
Assisting you practically
The IGT seeks to provide you with prompt practical assistance. There are certain important restrictions on the IGT that you should be aware of in this regard. The IGT may only consider tax administration issues that are systemic or potentially systemic. The IGT is not empowered to intervene in single taxpayer complaints or concerns. The Commonwealth Ombudsman is empowered to consider single taxpayer complaints or concerns, so you should address these to the Ombudsman. If you believe your matter is a systemic issue, please contact the IGT office to discuss it with a review officer. In seeking to address systemic issues, the IGT must carefully manage the resources of his office. The IGT sets a formal work program every 12 to 18 months, by consulting with stakeholders to identify systemic issues. The IGT then selects issues that are expected to provide the greatest overall improvement to the administration of the tax system. The IGT also seeks to address certain issues informally with the assistance of the ATO.
Office of the Inspector-General of Taxation Phone: 02 8239 2111 Email: [email protected] Postal Address: GPO Box 551, SYDNEY NSW 2001 Location: Level 19, 50 Bridge Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Website: www.igt.gov.au © Inspector-General of Taxation for the Commonwealth of Australia 2013 You are free to copy, adapt, modify, transmit and distribute this material as you wish (but not in any way that suggests the IGT or the Commonwealth endorses you or any of your services or products).