The Institute has lodged a submission with the House of Representatives Tax Committee regarding the external scrutiny arrangements for the Australian Taxation Office.
The Committee announced an inquiry into the various oversight mechanisms of the ATO, with a view to “removing inefficiency and duplication” and “reducing cost to government” for scrutinising the third-largest federal government agency or department.
The Institute’s submission reviewed the different types of external scrutiny of the ATO, including parliamentary scrutiny from bodies like the House Tax Committee, government-wide scrutiny mechanisms, like the Commonwealth Ombudsman, and agency-specific scrutiny, like the Inspector-General of Taxation.
In particular, the Institute recommended that the specialised oversight function of the Inspector-General not be weakened or undermined in the name of ‘efficiency’.
Our full submission is available here.
Further details about the inquiry can be found on the Committee’s website. The deadline for submissions has now passed.
