Private Groups Stewardship Group key messages 29 March 2019

ATO's Client Engagement Group realignment

Tim Dyce – Deputy Commissioner, Private Wealth ATO

Will Day – Deputy Commissioner, Integrated Compliance ATO

The ATO recently announced an internal realignment of our Client Engagement Group to better reflect the way we’d like to interact with clients, and to help us deliver the best possible outcomes for the community.

From 12 March the Private Wealth business line will be responsible for privately owned and wealthy groups under the leadership of Tim Dyce. This is designed to align with our structure to the market segments in which we work, and to take a more holistic view of our clients and their interactions across the tax and super system.

For this group, the changes mean Tim Dyce will take over as Chair from Will Day.

An updated picture of our structure and leadership group across the ATO is available in our organisational chart.

Private Groups Populations

Kasey Macfarlane – Assistant Commissioner, Private Wealth ATO

Michael Drogaris – Senior Director, Private Wealth ATO

The ATO has updated the thresholds and categories through which we view the private groups’ population.

The revised thresholds and population categories are designed to more closely align our view of the private groups’ population with the tax gap populations for large business, high wealth private groups and medium businesses, and will inform the ATO’s current and future programmes of work for private groups.

Specific taxpayer attributes and circumstances remain the key drivers of the nature of our engagement with individual private groups. The ATO’s updated view of the private groups’ population will also allow for our engagement with private groups to be appropriately and further tailored and refined depending upon their size in terms of net wealth and/or turnover.

Reportable Tax Position

Michael Morton – Assistant Commissioner, Public Groups ATO

Kasey Macfarlane – Assistant Commissioner, Private Wealth ATO

Michael Drogaris – Senior Director, Private Wealth ATO

Following the November 2018 Private Groups Stewardship Group meeting, members were presented with, and briefed upon, the RTP consultation paper that had been developed to garner feedback on the implementation of the RTP schedule to large private groups. It was noted that the process to be adopted is consistent with the previous expansion of the RTP Schedule to large public and multinational groups.

The brief to the Stewardship Group also relayed that the implementation of the RTP schedule for Private groups aims at:

• Providing a level playing field among professional service firms and large corporate groups by ensuring taxpayers receive high quality advice, as this underpins self-assessment and aids community confidence. Responsible advisers should practice with integrity as they play a major role in keeping clients engaged. Responsible advisers and the wider community should be confident that advisers known to be engaged in inappropriate and risky behaviour will be subject to additional scrutiny and a differentiated experience.
• Providing a level playing field among large corporate groups by ensuring all large businesses have the same obligation to disclose their most contestable and material tax positions, irrespective of whether they are a public or private business, and providing a consistent client experience for public and private clients in the large market.

The Stewardship Group was informed that the extension of the RTP schedule obligations will take effect from the 2019–2020 financial year with first lodgements due in 2021. This would apply to companies in large private groups, with the lead time being consistent with the lead time provided for the previous expansion of the RTP Schedule to large public and multinational groups.

Initial feedback provided by the members at the meeting on the consultation paper and process was that there would be a need to address some issues arising during the meeting through a limited working group before a wider circulation of the consultation paper. It was also agreed that this would occur and that the closing date for submissions would need to be extended as a result of this process.

Commercial Deals Program

Vaughan Snook – Senior Director, Private Wealth ATO

Benjamin Rupert – Director, Private Wealth ATO

Information was presented to members on the ATO’s Commercial Deals Program, including the current end to end process and experiences of the program so far.

Overall very positive feedback was received regarding the delivery and intent of the program.

Members identified timeliness is a key area requiring attention, with some of our engagements taking too long.

Further stakeholder engagement/consultation is required to further improve the current program.

Communicating with Privately Owned and Wealthy Groups

Sally Bektas – Assistant Commissioner, ATO Corporate ATO

A brief overview was provided of the work undertaken by Marketing and Communications to improve the client experience, with feedback provided by members on various information sources and channels that they find beneficial/useful.

Members were advised of a ‘hot off the press’ video release of Tim Dyce at the recent OECD Global Forum on VAT - LinkedIn Showcase page: focus on medium and large businessExternal Link.

Members were also invited to participate in user testing of the review of the ATO’s business mega menu.

Tax Governance Project

Ash Khera – Senior Director, Private Wealth ATO

Sharon Sutcliffe – Assistant Director, Private Wealth ATO

An update was provided to members on the Tax Governance tools project which is additional guidance and support for private groups to demonstrate good tax governance.

The 2 tools being delivered on 1 July 2019 are:

Information System Risk Assessment (ISRA) tool to externals on 1 July 2019

Tax Governance tool for ATO staff

Members were invited to participate in testing of the ISRA tool, scheduled for release to clients and advisors on 1 July 2019.

Members were also invited to co-design and explore release of the Tax Governance Tool to clients and advisors via a separate follow up invitation.

Income Tax update

Income Tax update

Peter Koit – Assistant Commissioner, Private Wealth ATO

Peter Koit presented an update on a number of income tax issues.

Div 7A Treasury consultation

The Government issued a consultation paper in October 2018 seeking stakeholder views on the proposed implementation approach for the amendments to Division 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.

The Government received valuable feedback from stakeholders which highlighted that this is a complex area of the tax law and raised implementation issues that warrant further consideration. 

S100A

There is no further progress to update since the November 2018 meeting.

Superannuation update

James O’Halloran – Deputy Commissioner, Superannuation and Employer Obligations

James O’Halloran referred to the Superannuation update included as part of the agenda, specifically referring to the recent change of super information available to fund members via ATO online services and myGov.

Specifically the ATO will share with individuals the confirmation of the payment period and the amount paid into a member’s account by their employer including:

• superannuation guarantee amounts
• salary sacrifice amounts
• voluntary employer contributions
• award contributions.

James advised that further information can be located on the ATO’s website.

Attendees

Organisation and name of attendees

Apologies