Tax Forum – speech by the Institute’s Tax Counsel

On 5 October 2011, the Institute’s Tax Counsel, Yasser El-Ansary addressed the tax forum regarding governance of the tax system. The following points were made:

• More resources need to be invested into policy formulation and law design processes – the last few years have starkly highlighted the risk of not investing resources in the process of consulting with key stakeholders outside of government and bureaucracy on major aspects of policy and law design 
• A more powerful amalgamated scrutineer agency is required to work with taxpayers and the ATO in identifying improvements that can be made to avoid systemic problems. Consideration should be given to combining the resources of the existing Inspector-General of Taxation, Taxation Ombudsman and elements of the Australian National Audit Office 
• It is expected that the government will outline a forward direction for how this community wide dialogue can continue.
  

Article last updated 21 March 2012