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The tax and superannuation systems play a major role in providing services and infrastructure for the community. The vast majority of Australians pay their tax appropriately, knowing their fellow Australians do the same. This confidence is the foundation of the high levels of voluntary compliance we see in Australia.
We want to encourage this behaviour to build community ownership of the tax and superannuation systems and to recognise the willingness to lodge and pay tax in accordance with the law as a mark of good citizenship.
We seek to create an environment conducive to high levels of willing participation. A part of this is to educate people new to the tax system to voluntarily comply with their obligations. Our Tax in Australia DVD, available in ten languages, provides an introduction to tax in Australia and outlines what people need to do to meet their obligations. We are working on including tax and superannuation as a subject in the national school curriculum. We also use our communication channels to provide the latest updates on new government measures, changes to legislation and reminders of upcoming due dates.
We believe that prevention is better than cure. We publish information on what people can expect from us and what compliance issues we are working on. We prioritise our work according to risk. We focus our compliance work on the highest risk areas identified through analysis such as taxpayer risk profiling.
We discourage people from ignoring their obligations by taking firm action against those who decide not to comply. For people and businesses wanting to do the right thing, we have a range of ways we can support them - including online information and calculators, seminars, workshops and assistance visits and arrangements to pay tax debts. For those choosing to disregard the law and work outside the systems there will be serious consequences, including interest penalties and prosecution.
We communicate regularly with the community through online updates, taxpayer alerts and community speeches, to ensure people understand our position.
Tax professionals make an important contribution to the smooth running of Australia's tax and superannuation systems. We continue to work with them to create the best possible tax administration. While we provide tax professionals with substantial support, we also encourage them to exercise a positive influence over their clients. We will pay particular attention to tax agents and their clients where they appear to be pushing the envelope.
We recognise the role the community has in the tax and superannuation systems and the importance of listening to what they have to say. Our 50 community based forums help us to hear what people, businesses and professional associations are experiencing. The forums also give us an insight into administrative irritants and where the law is not working as intended.
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Last Modified: Wednesday, 15 December 2010