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Section 3E of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 authorises the release of tax information to specified law enforcement agencies. However, the information must be relevant to determining whether a serious offence has been or is being committed, or to proceeds of crime order proceedings.
Information provided under the legislation can be used for investigative purposes, but not as evidence in a court for non-tax prosecutions (except in relation to proceeds of crime order proceedings).
During 2006-07 we received 868 requests, up from 717 received during 2005-06. We processed 815 requests and disclosed in 792 requests. These cases involved the affairs of individual and corporate entities. Forty requests were carried over from last year. A total of 110 requests were on hand at 30 June 2007.
Four requests were withdrawn by the requesting agencies and 19 requests were either rejected or assessed by the Tax Office as not being a 3E request. We initiated 17 disclosures to agencies.
No requests were received from, nor any disclosures made to, any Royal Commission in the period.
Table 2.34 shows the general categories of offence for 2006-07, while table 2.35 shows requests from agencies and Tax Office initiated disclosures.
Providing information to prescribed taskforces
Project Wickenby
In 2006-07, Tax Laws Amendment (2007 Measures No. 1) Bill 2007 inserted section 3G into the Taxation Administration Act 1953. Section 3G allows the disclosure of taxpayer information to Project Wickenby taskforce officers where the information is relevant to the taskforce's purpose. Table 2.36 indicates both the number of requests to disclose documents under section 3G received and the number of occasions we disclosed documents under that section in 2006-07.
Other prescribed taskforces
In 2006-07, Tax Laws Amendment (2007 Measures No. 1) Bill 2007 also inserted section 3H into the Taxation Administration Act 1953. Section 3H permits the disclosure of taxpayer information to officers in other taskforces that may be established to protect the public finances of Australia. The Governor-General may, by regulation under section 18 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953, prescribe a prescribed taskforce. However, no such taskforces were prescribed during 2006-07.
Sections within 2.5 Output 3: Compliance assurance and support for revenue collection
Last Modified: Thursday, 20 December 2007