Report from the latest NTLG meeting

Last week I joined our President, Steve Westaway CTA, and Vice-President, Michael Flynn CTA, at the ATO's National Tax Liaison Group meeting. As the ATO's peak consultative forum, the NTLG discusses matters of strategic importance to the tax and super systems. Treasury also join the meeting, which enables a discussion on tax policy.

The minutes will be published in due course, but in the meantime, I can report that discussion at the meeting included the following topics:

  • The value of further exploring the pros and cons of an extra-statutory discretion for the Commissioner; 
  • ATO's Integrated Tax Design function;
  • Update on the current ATO approach to alternative dispute resolution and settlements, including the appropriateness of the current approach and potential improvements; 
  • Transforming Tax Technical Decision Making project update;
  • ATO's consultation arrangements, including health and status of the current arrangements and significant matters for consultation; 
  • ATO's goals of transforming the customer experience in line with the 2020 vision;
  • Possibility of further moving to pre-populate tax returns for taxpayers with simple tax affairs; and
  • Streamlined returns and a tour of the ATO Co-Design Centre user testing facility.

Please feel free to be in touch with the Tax Policy team regarding any of the above.

Robert Jeremenko
Robert
Jeremenko

Robert Jeremenko CTA is Senior Tax Counsel of The Tax Institute.

The Tax Institute is Australia’s leading professional association in tax. Its 13,000 members include tax agents, accountants and lawyers as well as tax practitioners in corporations, government and academia.

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