We administer the IPS entry through our publishing framework, which identifies information that must and should be published.
Our IPS entry will develop progressively, as will the frameworks that support it.
Governance arrangements
The Second Commissioner, ATO Corporate, is responsible for implementing the amendments to the FOI Act. A program of work has been established to manage this work.
The Assistant Commissioner, Digital Experience, within the ATO Corporate business line is responsible for implementing and maintaining this IPS agency plan.
Accessibility
Consistent with the National Archives policy, an electronic record is the official record. Our IPS entry is made of electronic records wherever possible.
We publish all new information to meet the WCAG 2.0 standards. All supporting and historical information which does not comply will form part of the program of work for our Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy Task force.
We have developed FOI disclosure log business processes and systems around an electronic workflow with an accessible PDF output. Access to PDFs is via an online ordering serviceExternal Link.
The IPS entry helps us comply with accessibility requirements as it:
- is written for the web and structured in HTML web content
- describes the format and size of IPS documents where a non-HTML downloadable document is published on our website
- contains a HTML format of an IPS document where possible
- provides options for all our publicly available information for people with disabilities in line with our access and inclusion plan.
If information is required in a different format to that which it is published. We will try to meet all reasonable requests in a timely manner at the lowest reasonable cost to the requester.
Information policy frameworks
Publishing and ongoing management of our IPS entry is done using our existing publishing framework. This consists of a set of processes underpinned by corporate strategies, policies and standards.
We recognise information is one of our 3 key corporate resources. The other 2 are finance and personnel.
We will continue to develop our web capabilities as part of our Transforming ato.gov.au project. This has been established to improve the accessibility, discoverability, information architecture and metadata on our website.
IPS information structure
We currently publish a wide range of information on our website, including all categories of information required under the IPS.
Information included in the IPS entry is located on the relevant business web pages and linked from our IPS entry.
Information made available through freedom of information (FOI) requests is published to the ATO disclosure log whenever possible.
The IPS entry home page provides an overview of this information under the following headings:
- Agency plan – subsection 8(1) and paragraph 8(2)(a)
- Who we are – paragraphs 8(2)(b) and 8(2)(d)
- What we do – paragraphs 8(2)(c)
- Operational information – paragraph 8(2)(j) and section 8A
- Our reports and responses to Parliament – paragraphs 8(2)(e) and 8(2)(h)
- Routinely accessed information and disclosure log – paragraph 8(2)(g) and section 11C
- Consultation arrangements – paragraph 8(2)(f)
- Our priorities – subsection 8(4)
- Our finances – subsection 8(4)
- Our lists – subsection 8(4)
- More information – paragraph 8(2)(i).
Consistent with the objectives for our IPS entry, we:
- adopt the short form web address as recommended by the OAIC
- provide online content in a format that can be searched, copied and transformed wherever possible
- publish a sitemap on our website to help individuals identify the location of the IPS entry
- provide a search function for our website
- provide an alert service to notify subscribers of new information and changes to the IPS register.
We will, whenever possible, make our IPS entry available for reuse on open licensing terms.
If we have deposited or published IPS documents under a scheme we will publish information about the deposits on our website.
Schemes include:
- the Commonwealth Library Deposit
- the National Sound and Film Archive
- data.gov.auExternal Link.
Information that must be published under the IPS
Information under the IPS – subsection 8(2) – in the IPS register of information must be published.
We publish this information on our website under the following headings:
- Agency plan
- Who we are – includes information about organisational structure, governance arrangements, the Commissioner of Taxation and our senior management.
- What we do – includes information about the functions and decision-making powers of the Commissioner of Taxation.
- Operational information – includes information that assists us in making decisions or recommendations affecting members of the public. A strategy for further publication, its rationale and the risk assessment are outlined in Appendix A.
- Our reports and responses to parliament – includes our annual reports, documents required by law to be tabled in parliament and documents routinely tabled in accordance with Senate standing orders.
- Routinely accessed information and disclosure log – includes an entry point to the FOI disclosure log, published under section 11C of the FOI Act. We review the information we publish under section 11C of the FOI Act to detect subject matter that could reasonably be said to be routinely accessed. We are identifying opportunities to provide increased levels of information through administrative access schemes to reduce the need for it to be sought though FOI access requests.
- Consultation arrangements – this includes information about how and to whom a comment may be submitted by members of the public. We undertake public consultation on administrative policy and practice, law interpretation and co-design of products and services.
- More information – email our FOI mailbox – FOI@ato.gov.au to access documents under the FOI Act.
Additional information
We currently publish extensive additional material (subsection 8(4)) to our IPS entry including, but not limited to, the following.
- Our priorities – corporate and strategic plans, reviews, media releases and research.
- Our finances – financial information relating to pay and grading structures, procurement procedures, tendering and contracts.
- Our lists – lists of files, contracts, grants, media information and data sets.
The current holdings are reviewed and supplemented on an ongoing basis and several substantial information holdings are being scoped and assessed for publication over the next 2 years.