Robotax? More like a robo-beatup that misleads readers and duds taxpayers

For months, we’ve been hearing about “robotax” from the media, the Greens and other crossbenchers: the Australian Tax Office has been automatically raising old tax debts of individuals and small business taxpayers and offsetting them from tax refunds or alerting taxpayers about the need to repay the debt. The Greens and Guardian Australia, which has led the coverage, quickly labelled it “robotax” (initially in quotes, now without) in an effort to link it with the infamy of robodebt.

It’s nonsense: there is no “robotax”.