Compliance program 2008-09

Snapshot of our 2007-08 activities

Large businesses

Income tax

• We completed 33 compliance audits of large businesses and 139 comprehensive risk reviews, resulting in over $1.2 billion in additional collections⁴, $2.6 billion in new income tax liabilities⁵ and over $1.8 billion in notional tax⁶.
• We completed 222 private binding rulings, 82 class rulings, 29 product rulings and 282 objections⁷.
• We finalised 29 advance pricing agreements and 8 mutual agreement procedural matters.
• We developed a new annual compliance arrangement product to provide large businesses with greater certainty about their income tax risks.
• We resolved 5300 outstanding lodgment cases resulting in $118 million net liabilities raised.

Employer obligations

We conducted 11 field audits, 53 outbound telephone reviews and 281 desk reviews of employers' compliance with their PAYG withholding, superannuation guarantee and FBT obligations, raising revenue of $4.5 million.

GST

Our compliance activities gave rise to $455 million in additional GST liabilities:

• We finalised over 900 compliance audits focussing on integrity of business systems, financial supplies and property transactions as well as encouraging and responding to an increase in voluntary disclosures. These will remain our focus areas in 2008-09.
• A lead avoidance case concerning a significant property arrangement by a large corporate involving the exploitation of the GST-free sale of going concern and margin scheme provisions culminated in the issue of a Division 165 (scheme) declaration and assessment.
• Through improved risk assessment, we reduced the number of refund interventions to 2,600.
• Voluntary disclosures increased from $126 million in 2006-07 to $282 million.
• We issued 244 private indirect tax rulings for the large market, as well as three GST public rulings and four GST determinations that related to, but were not limited to, the large market.

Excise

• Education and support remains a critical aspect in providing assistance. We have established a client relationship management function to assist large clients in complying with their excise obligations.
• We conducted 18 reviews of large businesses across the excise commodities which focussed on controls to assure the accuracy of returns and claims.
• We conducted 54 audits and reviews on other large clients and 58 internal reviews.

Superannuation

• We audited 4 unfunded defined benefit schemes to ensure compliance with their obligations around the individual surcharge debt accounts they hold for members.
• We acted on 277 cases relating to employee complaints on employers' superannuation guarantee obligations, raising $9 million in liabilities.
• We conducted 53 audits of large funds to check whether their reporting of lost members was accurate and complete. One audit on a large administrator covering nine funds found systemic deficiencies with their reporting software, which resulted in 631 members being removed from the Lost Members Register with an associated value of over $98 million.

Results of our activities are based on preliminary data and are indicative only. Final results for 2007-08 will be published in our Annual report 2007-08, due for release in October.

Sections within Large businesses

• Headline issues
• Our general approach
• Promoting good corporate governance and greater certainty
• Advice and assurance services for large business
• Delivering on the Government's policy agenda
• Expanding income tax coverage
• Alignment of tax and economic performance
• Capital markets, including mergers and acquisitions
• International issues
• GST compliance issues
• Excise
• Large superannuation funds
• Promotion of tax exploitation schemes
• Mergers and acquisitions - what attracts our attention
• Building better relationships face to face
• Snapshot of our 2007-08 activities