Audit office tells ATO to lift game on tax evasion

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) needs to be more selective with its reviews and improve project management practices to reduce Project Wickenby audit cycle times, according to the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO).

In a review carried out by the ANAO of the Project Wickenby cross-agency task force targeting criminal tax evasion - which comprises seven Government agencies including the ATO - four of the ANAO's six recommendations were directed to the ATO.

These emphasised the importance of: effectively using risk reviews to support the program of compliance interventions; managing audits more effectively through the electronic case management system; expediting the completion of audits; and conducting a post-implementation review of the project shortly after funding ceases in June 2013.

The relatively few criticisms of Project Wickenby audits by stakeholders focused on "the timeliness of audit and objection processes, a lack of transparency and excessive imposts on those being audited, and alleged improper handling of information," the ANAO found.

"To learn from this feedback, the ATO could selectively survey taxpayers, and continue to examine approaches to expedite audits," the review stated.

Feedback also included an instance of a request from the ATO for substantial information it already held.

In another example, taxpayers had approached the ATO with details of a tax scheme but the ATO did not respond, as promised, to advise if there was a problem with the scheme's legitimacy.

In fact, the ATO did not respond to the inquiry for almost four years, then instigated investigations through Project Wickenby once it identified issues of non-compliance, the ANAO stated.

The ATO welcomed the review and agreed with the four recommendations put forth, according to the ANAO.