ATO Organisational capability

Our organisational capability is the combination of our people, culture, governance principles, processes, systems, data and knowledge.

Strong organisational capabilities directly contribute to delivering on our purpose and key activities, ensuring we are well‑positioned to support the government and, ultimately, the Australian community.

Tax administration effectiveness

Our role is to collect the right amount of tax, in accordance with the law, in the most efficient way for the government, the community and the specific taxpayer.

The tax gap is an over-arching measure that tells us how well the tax system is operating, allowing us to better understand the overall level of compliance across the tax system, whether we are collecting the right amount of tax in accordance with the law, and where we need to focus our resources.

Across the ATO, our strategies and operations are guided by our core role of collecting the right amount of tax by:

• prioritising and facilitating voluntary compliance, by encouraging accurate and timely registration, lodgment and payment through our activities and systems designed to support the vast majority of Australians who are willing to do the right thing from the outset
• to the maximum extent possible, making compliance easier by providing guidance to support taxpayers getting it right the first time and making it easy to engage with us, including by linking to taxpayer’s natural systems, and obtaining and sharing with taxpayers the third-party information we hold
• undertaking compliance activities, including detection, audits and reviews to address non-compliance where it arises
• resolving disputes efficiently and ethically, and litigating the right cases to get the outcome the community expects and clarity of the law benefiting all taxpayers
• transparently providing information to all Australians as to the health of the tax system, so that they can have confidence that other taxpayers are being held to account in meeting their obligations.

While these principles form the foundation of our approach, their specific application and relative importance is tailored to the characteristics and behaviours of different taxpayer market segments.

Workforce

We are a high performing and agile workforce with a focus on integrity, professional capability and the right culture to administer Australia’s tax system effectively.

We are committed to evolving as a contemporary, forward-looking organisation that aligns with whole-of-government workforce priorities and APS Reform initiatives. We will remain responsive to a rapidly changing environment shaped by digital transformation, advances in artificial intelligence (AI), persistent cyber threats and rising integrity expectations.

Our ability to deliver high-value outcomes for the Australian community depends on a highly skilled, engaged and adaptable workforce.

The following are key to attracting, developing and retaining this workforce:

• A strong culture that drives how we work together and fosters a collaborative, innovative and resilient workforce built on the foundations of inclusion and diversity.
• Cultivating leaders of today and tomorrow, ensuring leadership is demonstrated and encouraged at every level of the organisation.
• Ongoing development of core skills and technical expertise, through streamlined, contemporary and accessible learning opportunities and career pathways, including mobility options.
• A commitment to our people that prioritises their health, safety and wellbeing and delivers initiatives and systems that support people to thrive at work.

In line with national workforce trends, we are developing a People Strategy to build the workforce we need that:

• delivers on our priorities
• reflects the diversity of the Australian community we serve.

Reconciliation

We are committed to transforming our organisation in line with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

We recognise that reconciliation initiatives are about re-balancing our systems and structures to move towards greater equity and unity in Australian society.

Our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP):

• is a blueprint to embed reconciliation into our day-to-day work
• provides information about our initiatives and supports reconciliation in all areas across our organisation.

Our vision for reconciliation is that we all benefit from a reconciled Australia, where we value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and perspectives. We recognise our shared history and we are committed to creating and sustaining positive relationships as a united country. We will achieve this through our RAP goals, which are to:

• increase economic inclusion and equity for all Australians
• establish cultural competency within our organisation
• increase participation and representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within our organisation
• improve our service offerings and tailor support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients
• enhance relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
• increase collaboration with internal and external partners.

Technology

Our technology and digital services deliver a reliable and contemporary taxpayer experience and keep pace with community expectations.

We are recognised as a leader in the provision of government digital services, underpinned by our advanced technology environment.

Our digital strategy continues to drive digitalisation efforts, with a focus on increasing the security of our services, while reimagining how our digital systems support the future needs of taxpayers and business partners.

We will support secure services by remaining accountable for the development and overall operation of the myID and Relationship Authorisation Manager services within the Australian Government Digital ID system.

We aim to deliver:

• High‑quality taxpayer and staff experiences – Our technology services drive digital-first thinking and deliver high-quality taxpayer and staff experiences.
• Effective and efficient organisation – Technology is managed in a way that supports us in being highly effective and efficient at undertaking our business.
• Interoperable ecosystem with high levels of trust – We are building foundations that foster a high-functioning ecosystem where market-driven innovation delivers value.

To ensure the performance and availability of our services and operations, we will continue to invest in the capacity, resilience and security of our critical systems.

The increasing cyber threat landscape demands constant focus and investment to combat fraud and protect our data. Enhancing our technology capability and resilience is essential to manage ongoing systems demand.

Data and analytics

We use data and insights to both strengthen our decision‑making and better support taxpayers to meet their obligations.

We use a range of data and analytics capabilities to maintain high levels of compliance across the tax and superannuation systems, including to support our pre-fill services. These capabilities enable us to:

• identify risks
• tailor our engagements
• influence taxpayer behaviour in real time
• recover debt
• detect fraud.

We hold a large volume of data, and we take our data governance and stewardship responsibilities seriously. We share data across Commonwealth, state and local government entities in accordance with our legal obligations and data ethics principles to enable them to administer laws and programs, deliver services to the community and assist with research and policy development.

We have a group of skilled data and analytics professionals who deliver data and analytical solutions to enable us to achieve our outcomes. We are continuing to uplift data and AI literacy for all staff and will focus on expanding our use of automation and AI to increase operational efficiency. We play an active role across the APS in developing data and analytics capability, sharing our expertise on how to operate at scale in delivering data and analytics solutions. We support international data and analytics capability development through international forums.

Financial investment

We strive for operational excellence to achieve efficient and effective outcomes.

Our policy framework outlines the requirements applicable to all ATO staff ensuring our decisions and actions are supported by strong financial management practices, including:

• Procurement – We are committed to ensuring all spending arrangements support the proper use of ATO resources, achieve value for money and are in accordance with Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
• Compliance with finance law – The PGPA Act requires all officials to have a high standard of governance and promote the proper use of public resources in an efficient, effective, economical and ethical way.
• Budget management – We are committed to best practice in the efficient and effective use of our financial resources in accordance with the PGPA Act. This includes managing expenditure within budget affordability.

Mandatory instructions applicable to all ATO officials outline the finance law requirements, including the need to ensure the proper use of public resources in an efficient, effective, economical and ethical way. This enables the appropriate prioritisation of funding and dedicated resources across the ATO supported by formal governance arrangements that ensure appropriate transparency and accountability.

APS Reform

We are committed to building a stronger APS through reform initiatives. The government’s APS Reform agenda aims to strengthen the public service and increase the public’s trust and confidence in Australia’s public sector institutions.

In partnership with the APSC we, along with other public sector entities, have a role in supporting the APS Reform agenda which commits to building a stronger APS that:

• delivers better outcomes for the community
• acts as a model employer
• contributes to a fairer and more inclusive Australia.

Two key areas of reform focus for us are embedding the Strategic Commissioning Framework and actioning the recently completed Capability Review.

Strategic Commissioning Framework

Building on our success in 2024–25, we will continue to mature our in-house capability for core work in line with the APS Strategic Commissioning Framework. We expect our targets for 2025–26 to focus on reduced outsourcing in information technology work, in line with our workforce plans.

Capability Review

The Capability Review Program, which is managed by the APSC, is part of the government’s enduring plan for APS Reform. Capability reviews help facilitate discussions around an organisation’s desired future state, highlight strengths and organisational capability gaps and identify opportunities to act on them.

We are committed to acting on key insights identified by the Capability Review. In recognition of our commitment, implementation of Our Performance Evolution developed in response to the Capability Review findings is one of our enterprise priorities for 2025–26. Our Performance Evolution, which was published on 11 July 2025, draws on insights from the report, calling out areas we will focus on to:

• continue to build on our long and proud history of serving the Australian community
• make the shifts necessary to advance our vision.

Vulnerability capability

We are formalising and strengthening our approach to supporting people experiencing vulnerability through human‑centred service design and empathetic, respectful interactions. This approach will guide us as we deliver our regulatory responsibilities.

As a result of a range of social, socio-economic and environmental factors faced by Australians, the number of taxpayers engaging with us who are experiencing vulnerability is growing.

There has been a greater focus from government to support the community, to ensure these factors do not lead to harm or disadvantage. In this context, it is important that we:

• deliver tangible and tailored support to taxpayers
• ensure that we are keeping pace with changing community expectations.

We have established a new vulnerability capability to strengthen the way we support people experiencing vulnerability through targeted and effective support options. The program of work to implement the capability includes:

• developing a Vulnerability Framework that outlines
  • our role in supporting people experiencing vulnerability
  • how this is incorporated into the design of our procedures, services and support arrangements, including staff capability
• specific actions and activities to support people experiencing vulnerability
• implementing the Tax Ombudsman recommendations on Identification and Management of Financial Abuse within the Tax System.