Tax office ‘prefers secrecy over transparency’, claims Pocock

article-body

The Australian Taxation Office needs a cultural and leadership review if it prefers secrecy over transparency, says Greens senator Barbara Pocock.

Emails obtained by The Mandarin via freedom of information detailed the ATO’s concerns about the Tax Practitioners Board’s (TPB) plan to release 144 pages in compliance with a senate question on notice.

The ATO argued the material could compromise future investigations because of the perception that information provided to both organisations could be at risk of public exposure.

“The correspondence between the ATO and the TPB over the release of the emails shows the ATO is more concerned with maintaining secrecy than it is in bringing the details of wrong-doing to public attention,” Pocock said.

“[It is] certainly much more concerned than the TPB, which eventually saw these issues into the light, apparently against the wishes of the ATO.

“Is this the ATO’s default reaction to legitimate requests for information that runs along the lines of ‘resist until it’s completely futile’? Is this part of the explanation for the seven-year ‘go slow’, which has served PwC much more than the Australian taxpayer?”

Pocock said the tone of the ATO emails was reproachful when referring to sharing material on the PwC matter with the senate.

“This kind of reasoning is precisely what led to the long delay in the fiasco being investigated,” Pocock said.

A broader review of the ATO might be necessary, Pocock said, including its culture and leadership, and not just the secrecy provisions of laws that the ATO said made it difficult to share information with other agencies about the breach.

“If the ATO thinks it should be protected from providing answers to questions from the Parliament then I think we need not just a review of the secrecy provisions around our tax system to ensure accountability and transparency, but also a review of the culture and leadership within the ATO and its attitude to parliamentary processes,” Pocock said.

Former senator Rex Patrick has dismissed the ATO’s concerns that releasing the documents to the senate would set a precedent.

Patrick said the senate has the power to demand the ATO produce documents, regardless of any concerns it might express about the impact tabling information may have on investigations.

“The legal situation is clear,” Patrick said. “The senate gets its legal power to require the production of documents from the tax office from section 49 of the Constitution which trumps secrecy provisions in the Tax Administration Act,” Patrick said.

“It is for a house of Parliament to decide how it might exercise its powers provided to it under the Constitution, not the tax commissioner … any less than it is for the tax commissioner to decide how he might exercise his powers, not the taxpayer.”

---

:

Exclusive: Tax office worried PwC email release would compromise future investigations