ATO faces harsh criticism in Parliament

By Craig Phillips

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has again been slammed in Parliament over its inflexibility and reluctance to grant concessions to investors in tax-effective investment schemes it deems are tax avoidance vehicles.

In a scathing speech delivered in the House of Representatives last week, Western Australia Labor member of Parliament Sharryn Jackson attacked the ATO over its treatment of those investors in schemes denied access to the ATO’s June 2002 compromise settlement offer.

“I believe that neither the commissioner nor the ATO have any understanding of the dramatic effect that their actions have had on thousands of Western Australian families,” Jackson said.

Jackson’s comments follow those of Liberal member of Parliament Don Randall, who was also cutting in a speech relating to the ATO’s treatment of affected investors earlier this year.

“The commissioner has demonstrated that he is either unwilling or unable to resolve the matter fairly and equitably,” Randall said.

Jackson, who firmly supports the ATO’s moves to close tax loopholes that enable wealthy individuals to dodge their tax obligations, said a number of her constituents are suffering despite the ATO being partially responsible for the situation.

“I do not believe that mum and dad investors should bear the full force of the ATO’s powers and be made to feel like criminals when it was an enormous systematic failure of the ATO and its administrative systems which were partly responsible,” she says.

According to Randall, the Commissioner of Taxation continues to treat advisers as promoters of the schemes, despite the Government clearly indicating planners and others who give advice reliant on information provided to them would not be held responsible as promoters.