Individuals Stewardship Group key messages 30 April 2024

Opening comments

Chair Andrew Watson welcomed returning and new members. The Individuals Stewardship Group is a forum for members to discuss relevant topics and to understand what is happening in the community.

Darcy Gee was welcomed as the new representative for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Lynda Edwards and Zyl Hovenga-Wauchope as the new representatives for Financial Counselling Australia, and Jane Britt as the new representative for People with Disability Australia.

ATO Marketing and Communications

Tax time communications

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has a range of tools and communications to support the community during tax time. The tax time communications strategy leverages several channels including mainstream media, community leaders, public relations outreach, paid advertising campaigns, and emails to taxpayers.

The ATO’s digital Self-help services are the easiest and quickest way to resolve queries this tax time. There are several digital self-help services available for individuals:

• Check the progress of your tax return.
• Tax time toolkits with a range of occupation and industry-specific guides, including the Tax time toolkit for investors.
• Top call centre questions, which provides answers to common tax time questions.
• Information for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and People with disability.
• Tax time resources in languages other than English, and Audio guides  in your language.
• ATO communityExternal Link, an online forum where people can ask and share information about tax and super issues.

The ATO is reminding individuals to protect their personal information from scammers, and to not engage if they think a phone call, SMS, voicemail, email or interaction on social media claiming to be from the ATO is not genuine. Scams and impersonations of the ATO can be verified and reported online via Verify or report a scam.

Member comments

Members provided feedback on website accessibility for users who require assistive technologies.

Client experience insights

Three tier tolerance framework: an organised view of risks

The ATO provided an overview of the three tier tolerance framework developed to bring information into an organised view of risks. The framework looks at the spectrum of behaviours across the client experience. It assists the ATO to focus on the behaviours and non-performance that require action to bring clients back to a level of compliance that would be considered acceptable to the community.

The ATO has several client experiences representing taxpayer populations participating in the tax, superannuation and registry systems. Each are reviewed through lenses including an environmental scan and compliance pillars to develop a client behaviour view.

An environmental scan identifies existing or potential risk sources and areas of concern. These information sets include intelligence that tells the ATO:

• there is an increase in the Individuals tax gap that is driven by a particular type of risk
• a down-turn in the economy can contribute to an increase in late-payments or non-payment of debts.

This helps to inform the level of tolerance for these behaviours and determine:

• if they are acceptable to the ATO as stewards of the tax system
• what is acceptable from the community and government
• if changes should be implemented to bring tolerances back to acceptable levels.

This enables the ATO to better understand the system in operation and significant risks for each client experience. It ensures the ATO is focused on priority areas and that priorities are managed cohesively across client experiences. Additionally, it enables the identification of potential blind spots and areas of concerns that might not be a problem now but could become a problem in the future.

Member comments

Members queried the complexity of messaging for individuals with a straightforward understanding of the tax, superannuation and registry systems if the intention is to undertake further consultation with the public.

Members noted the framework provides insights to the ATO’s risk models and is helpful to understand the hierarchy of risks and priorities.

Community environmental scan

Treasury

• Treasury reminded members that the changes to Individual income tax rates and thresholds will commence from 1 July 2024.
• The Australian Government has consulted on a measure from the 2023–24 Budget to exempt eligible lump sum payments in arrears from the Medicare levy from 1 July 2024. This measure will ensure low-income taxpayers do not pay higher amounts of the Medicare levy as a result of receiving an eligible lump sum payment.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

ASIC's review of the superannuation sector highlighted the need for a focus on super performance and transparency about persistently underperforming investment options. Consumers are encouraged to check in on how their super is performing.

ATO

• The ATO invited members to help identify community organisation sites to run face-to face Tax Help centres this tax time.
• ATO frontline staff are undertaking additional training to identify vulnerability in preparation for Tax Time 2024.

Member comments

Non-government members were asked to provide insights on what issues and drivers their organisations are currently experiencing. Bill shock and digital literacy were a common theme.

Members reported there continues to be an increase in demand and wait times to access their services. Their clients have experienced:

• bill shock, there is still a common misconception that government payments are exempt from tax, resulting in a higher-than-expected taxable income
• unmanageable cost of living pressures
• positive interactions when liaising with external debt collection agency Recoveriescorp for referred ATO debts
• vulnerability to scams.

Attendees

Guest attendees

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