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The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) at a glance
Our role
- We are the Australian Government's largest revenue collection agency
- We are a large payer of government funds
- We administer major aspects of Australia's superannuation system
- We are the custodian of the Australian Business Register
Our vision
Australians value their tax and superannuation systems as community assets, where willing participation is recognised as good citizenship.
Our outcome
Confidence in the administration of aspects of Australia's tax and superannuation systems through helping people understand their rights and obligations, improving ease of compliance and access to benefits, and managing non-compliance with the law.
Our values
- Being fair and professional
- Applying the rule of law
- Supporting taxpayers who want to do the right thing and being fair but firm with those that don't
- Being consultative, collaborative and willing to co-design
- Being open and accountable
- Being responsive to challenges and opportunities
Our people
Our average staffing level will be 21,828 across 58 locations across Australia as at June 2010.
Our budget
Our total budget for 2010-11 is $3.189 billion.
Our effectiveness indicators
- Deliver aspects of tax and superannuation systems for government and the community
- Maintain community confidence and engagement
- Help people understand their rights and obligations
- Improve ease of compliance and access to benefits
- Manage non-compliance with the law
In 2009-10 we pushed through significant change and consolidation and achieved much in a difficult economic climate. Through our focus on positioning for the future, and refreshing our infrastructure, culture and skills we have put ourselves in the best position to respond to the needs of the government and the community.
Our centenary
This year marks our centenary. The ATO is using this commemorative year to acknowledge and reflect on 100 years of serving the community and meeting the needs of the government of the day.
Strategic statement 2010-15
Australians value their tax and superannuation systems as community assets, where willing participation is recognised as good citizenship.
Our strategic statement, for the period to 2015, increases our emphasis on ensuring the taxpayer is at the centre of our administration. We want to work with tax professionals and the community to seek ways of inspiring broader community ownership of, and engagement in, Australia's tax and superannuation systems.
The strategic statement focuses on guiding broad cultural change that:
- encourages people to support and understand the benefits of participating in Australia's tax and superannuation systems to the point they are engaged and willing to participate
- supports people by helping and assisting them to understand their rights and responsibilities or to access their benefits at minimal cost
- works with the community to deter, detect and deal with those who have not complied in order to protect those who have
- is passionate about improving and innovating and being responsive to challenges and opportunities
- champions the interests of the community and provides advice to government on ways to improve the operation of Australia's tax and superannuation systems.
In order to value the tax and superannuation systems as community assets, the community needs to have confidence in the fairness and integrity of our administration - that everyone meets their obligations, that those entitled to benefits have access to them and people wanting to do the right thing are helped to do so.
Change program
We recently implemented major changes to many aspects of our IT systems. The scale may well be as big as anything seen in global tax administration, but these changes are only valuable if they enable us to better serve the community.
Our new systems improve our efficiency and allow us to better respond to the needs of taxpayers and their agents.
The new systems provide a platform that ensures Australia's tax and superannuation systems can meet the needs of the community in the future.
We are already seeing the new platform's worth for the future - it helps us deliver an improved client experience and enables us to implement new legislative measures more quickly. We will also use the new systems to re-engineer many of our work processes with a view to further improving our efficiency and effectiveness.
Reducing compliance costs
We will continue to explore and implement new ways of working with businesses across a range of taxes and markets. Increasingly we are engaging with taxpayers on a prospective, cooperative basis to identify tax risk and agree on mitigation strategies. This provides greater certainty for taxpayers and reduces compliance costs.
Standard Business Reporting will simplify business-to-government reporting by pre-filling forms, removing unnecessary duplication of information, adopting plain, consistent language, and providing an electronic interface to agencies directly from accounting software.
The Australian Business Register provides the key to promoting on-line dealings between governments at all levels and businesses, helping to reduce compliance costs and making Australia more efficient.
Our values
Our underlying approaches to administration and our corporate values have helped to guide our response to the challenges we have faced over recent times with the global financial crisis and natural disasters.
Our challenge in good times and bad is to nurture an environment conducive to high levels of willing participation. This engenders trust and confidence in the ATO and in Australia's tax and superannuation systems.
What we now call the 3Cs - consultation, collaboration and co-design are increasingly built into the way we work together within the organisation and with the community. They have become embedded in our values and culture.
Our capabilities
The culture we want from ourselves is based not only on high levels of professionalism, skill and empathy, but also on enthusiastic commitment and pride in the important work we do for the wellbeing of all Australians. A core notion is that we want the community to become more engaged with a sense of ownership of our tax and superannuation systems.
Last Modified: Monday, 6 September 2010