Lodgment Program Review Working Group key messages 8 February 2022

Welcome

The Lodgment Program Review Working Group opened its third meeting, Tuesday 8 February 2022. Tina Ford-Doe acting Assistant Commissioner Engagement and Support, Individuals and Intermediaries stood in for Kath Anderson as the internal Co-chair, and Debra Anderson from Anderson Tax and Consulting as the external Co-chair.

Meeting summary

The group recapped discussions and action items from the previous meeting. A timeline for the review was presented to the group, to show intent of today’s meeting and topics to be covered in line with discussion and meeting plan.

The draft intent statement was reviewed again, and agents provided feedback that they would like payments shown as a key element separated from lodgments. This has tentatively been added however, further discussion is required to determine if payments are a factor of the lodgment program or a pressure recognised as impacting lodgments.

The group was asked to consider the ‘success measures’ for the lodgment program. There was a lot of conversation around percentage benchmarks and similar ratings, this however is an indicator of an agents or practice income tax or fringe benefits tax lodgment status. A refocus of the discussion provided some beneficial input around what a successful lodgment program looks like.

• Success is fair, simple, flexible, efficient.
• Inspiration statement – success is minimal contact with the ATO being required.

Feedback of some of pressure points facing agents has been provided and will be analysed to determine patterns, trends, categories and enable context to be added where required. These will be presented back to the group for further discussion.