The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has acknowledged the degree of debt it is managing exceeds $14 billion.
The Commissioner for Taxation, Michael D'Ascenzo, has told a recent conference the ATO is managing around 1.4 million debt cases with a total value in excess of $14 billion dollars.
As well, he said that every quarter the tax office was managing thousands of overdue activity statement payments.
Explaining the ATO's use of analytics to assist in managing the debt problem, D'Ascenzo said some cases resolved themselves while others required further action by the agency.
"A suite of debt models predicts a taxpayer's propensity to repay a debt, and their capacity to pay," he said.
"Using income tax return data, we are able to risk score over one million companies across all industries, all corporation types (public, private) and all sizes, as measured either by assets or number of employees."
D'Ascenzo said the combined scores enabled the ATO to determine the necessary support or compliance strategy required.
"Those who are predicted to finalise their debt on their own – people with a predicted high propensity to pay – do not need to be bothered by us unless they are in need of assistance," he said.
"On the other hand, we try to engage early with taxpayers who have a low propensity and a high capacity to pay."
