Deputy Commissioner Neil Olesen, ATO opened the meeting and welcomed forum members.
Neil welcomed substitute and additional members to the meeting:
Neil also welcomed Susan Diver-Tuck and Pat van Hamburg from the ATO who attended as observers. The ATO is conducting a review of the operation and effectiveness of its various external forums. The project aims to examine the existing arrangements of external consultative forums with a view to:
- Determining the value the forums are adding to the consultation processes between the ATO and external stakeholders
- Assess whether the membership of the forums provides effective strategic relationships and two way communication
- Develop and implement the processes needed to effectively gather, analyse and share intelligence coming from the forums
- Determining whether process improvements are needed to increase forum effectiveness, and
- Identifying and standardising best practice processes which will increase forum effectiveness.
Minutes from the previous meeting were accepted with some amendments to be made.
There were two outstanding action items.
SCC-130911-01: Can recovery action on an ECT case be deferred in circumstances where the matter goes before the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal?
Beth Barry, ATO had spoken with the ATO's Debt team and confirmed that disputes that are referred to the SCT relating to a failure of a fund to re-report a contribution, would be eligible for a deferral of recovery action of the excess contribution tax debt. The taxpayer would need to apply for this deferral.
SCC-130911-02: Can the ATO provide statistics and demographics in relation to employers that pay the superannuation guarantee charge?
The ATO proposes to bring any information it can provide to the March 2012 meeting.
Commissioner of Taxation
Neil introduced the Commissioner of Taxation, Michael D'Ascenzo who was attending the meeting. The Commissioner made the following points in his opening statement:
The Commissioner intends to continue trying to attend at least one SCC meeting each year
The Commissioner thanked members and the forum for engaging constructively, assisting the ATO in its objectives to consult, collaborate and co-design
Collection systems and retirement incomes are critically important to the future of Australians. As the country faces an ageing population, equity in the system and focusing on savings will benefit those that would otherwise have fallen into social security system.
The ATO's Annual Report 2010-11 noted a high implementation risk in relation to the broad package of reforms in the industry. The Commissioner emphasised that this will maintain the focus of the ATO into 2012 and thanked members in advance for the assistance they will provide during the ongoing consultation and implementation phases.
Sections within Agenda items
Last Modified: Thursday, 9 August 2012