The Home Affairs portfolio, including the Australian Border Force (ABF), is responsible for the collection of customs duty and other indirect taxes including GST at the border. Home Affairs also administers the deferral of GST on imported goods for registered importers under the GST Deferral Scheme.
Highlights for 2021–22 include:
- $5.7 billion GST collected and $36.4 billion deferred GST on imported goods – representing a total GST liability assessed of $42.1 billion
- 4.4 million import declarations and self-assessed clearance declarations processed
- 1.3 million export declarations cleared
- 138,000 Tourist Refund Scheme (TRS) claims, of which 98.3% were approved, resulting in claims paid of $47.2 million.
Compliance program
Australia’s prosperity is driven by open access to a global market where goods can move freely across borders.
The ABF:
- maintains the integrity of Australia’s trade system through border management and aviation and maritime security
- facilitates cross-border trade and travel
- leads the Australian Government’s customs and border activities – delivering seamless, secure and digitally-enabled systems and services
- monitors the changing operational environment, including the possibility of criminals seeking to import vaccinations (legitimate, counterfeit or fake) illegally.
To date, there have been no detections of counterfeit, fake or diverted COVID-19 vaccines at the Australian border.
The ABF’s Operation Hangfire helped expedite and clear more than 5.8 million legitimate COVID-19 vaccine doses across the Australian border – upholding the integrity of the Australian COVID-19 vaccination strategy.
In 2021–22, Home Affairs compliance activities identified a total of $190.2 million in GST understatements.
Figure 10: GST understatements
There was $125 million in voluntary disclosures. Voluntary disclosure cases rely upon self-reporting. Fluctuations in the number and value from quarter to quarter are common. Reported values are not indicative of seasonal trends, operational tempo and are not a predictor of future trends.
Tourist Refund Scheme
As COVID-19 continued, the restrictions on international travel were maintained for a large portion of 2021–22. Tourist Refund Scheme (TRS) claims increased to 138,000, resulting in payments of $47.2 million to travellers; compared to 50,000 claims resulting in payments of $21.2 million in 2020–21.
It should be noted that this is still a significant reduction when compared to pre-COVID results.
An upgrade to the TRS mobile application has progressed and is on track to be delivered for user testing. The upgraded application will improve the user experience.
2018–19 Australian National Audit Office audit of the TRS
The final recommendation to conduct an exercise to measure revenue compliance and leakage was delayed due to limited international passenger numbers before being undertaken mid-year.
The results are being compiled with a view to reporting to government in late 2022.