What are ATO recommendations
Complete your response for ATO recommendations in Section B of your Supplementary annual GST return 2025. ATO recommendations include any governance recommendations or suggested enhancements from your earlier review, as well as any recommendations in relation to specific risks or issues.
For example, where in your most recent GST assurance review we advised and recommended you address design gaps in Managerial-level control (MLC) 6, then if you have:
- addressed the design gaps, you should explain the extent of your changes in your answer to Question 5
- not addressed the design gaps, you should explain why in your answer to Question 6 and outline what actions you will take in future.
Question 4
At Question 4 of the Supplementary annual GST return 2025, you must disclose whether there are any actions that remain outstanding for the entity to take in relation to:
- our recommendations from your most recent GST assurance review (including subsequent interactions with us)
- areas of low assurance or red flags outlined by us in your most recent GST assurance review.
You must answer either Yes or No. If some actions remain outstanding for some, but not all, recommendations, you should answer 'Yes'.
Question 5
You must provide a detailed response in relation to the actions you have taken to:
- address each of our recommendations
- resolve each of the areas of low assurance or red flags outlined by us.
Question 6
You must provide an explanation of any actions that remain outstanding for the entity to take in relation to our recommendations or areas of low assurance or red flags outlined by us.
If you answered 'No' at Question 4, you do not need to answer this question.
Resources to help you answer these questions
The best resources to help you answer these questions will be:
- the final report you received at the completion of your most recent GST assurance review, which will record any ATO recommendations, areas of low assurance or red flags
- you should consider all focus areas in the report, including GST governance
- you should particularly review the ‘Next steps’ section of a Top 1,000 report or the 'Future assurance plan' section of a Top 100 report
- if you require a copy of your final report, contact us at SAGR@ato.gov.au
- any subsequent interactions with us, including further communications you've had with us in relation to particular issues or recommendations.
In responding, consider the recommendations that were identified in your assurance review that:
- you have resolved or actioned, and how
- you haven't resolved or actioned, and why.
You should also specify how you have addressed any areas of low assurance or red flags provided by us. Ensure you hold objective evidence in support of your responses.
Example 1: 'No' at Question 4
Heather Designs is a Top 1,000 taxpayer. In its most recent combined assurance review, we recommended that Heather Designs:
- review its input tax credit claims in relation to entertainment expenses and lodge a voluntary disclosure (or notify us of the outcome of its review) by 30 September 2024
- evidence the independent testing of its GST control framework.
Heather Designs conducted a self-review and determined that it hadn't made any claims for non-deductible entertainment expenses. It determined that a voluntary disclosure was not required and notified us of the outcome of the self-review by the due date.
Heather Designs has also conducted independent testing of its GST control framework since the review.
When completing Question 4 of the Supplementary annual GST return, Heather Designs answers ‘No’ as it does not have any outstanding action items from its last GST assurance review.
When completing Question 5, Heather Designs responds that:
- It has conducted a self-review in relation to non-deductible entertainment expenses, and it outlines the correspondence it provided to us that fulfilled its client next action on this issue, with the date of that correspondence.
- It can evidence independent testing of its GST control framework. An independent tester has conducted testing of all of its tax controls in September 2024. The report describing the outcomes of that testing confirms that each of the controls are operating effectively. The independent tester made a recommendation about undertaking a review of vendors' ABNs as part of its testing of the master file set-up, which Heather Designs has actioned.
Heather Designs does not need to complete Question 6.
End of exampleContinue to Section C: Question 7.
Return to Instructions to complete the Supplementary annual GST return 2025.