Source: New places to play in Gungahlin
Rob Heferen, Commissioner of Taxation
CPA Tax Forum 2025
Melbourne, Wednesday 13 August 2025
(Check against delivery)
Introduction
Thank you to the CPA for inviting me here today.
I’d like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we meet today, and pay my respects to Elders past and present. I also extend that respect to any First Nations people in the audience today.
Shaping the future of tax is a lofty topic for a Wednesday morning, particularly when a government regulator is discussing it, but I promise this won’t be a crystal-ball session.
Instead, I want to talk about how the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) sees the road ahead and how we’re walking it with you as tax professionals.
ATO’s vision and purpose
So, where are we right now?
After my first year as Commissioner, I took a good look at how the ATO fits into the bigger picture. It was clear we needed to refresh our purpose and vision – to make sure we’re focused on what really matters. As Stephen Covey puts it: the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
Our purpose is simple: we collect tax so the government can fund services for the Australian community. That’s our core job. Everything else we do supports that.
And when we do that well, we’re working towards our vision: an Australia where taxpayers meet their obligations because:
- complying is easy
- help is tailored
- deliberate non-compliance has consequences.
We’re not just tax administrators – we’re stewards of a system that underpins the nation. That means being proactive, adaptable and staying connected to the people and professionals who work with us.
And that’s where you come in. You’re interpreters, educators and advocates. You help people, especially small businesses, make sense of complexity, and in doing so, you help keep the system strong.
But how are we going?
Late last year, the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) reviewed the ATO as part of its broader push to lift capability across government. The review showed we’re a high-performing agency – thanks largely to the dedication and skill of our people.
But it also pointed out areas where we can improve. So we’ve launched our performance evolution – our plan to build on our strengths, sharpen our focus and lift our capability even further.
It’s about aligning our efforts across the ATO so we’re ready for today’s priorities and tomorrow’s challenges. We’ll:
- think bigger
- act bolder
- deliver together.
I encourage you to check out the capability review report and our performance evolution on the APSC websiteExternal Link.
Our performance evolution is also front and centre in our 2025–26 corporate plan, which we released last week.
Our corporate plan also lays out our focus on:
- improving payment performance and debt collection
- strengthening fraud prevention and response
- rolling out Payday Super, subject to the passage of legislation
- making the tax experience simpler and more digital for small businesses.
These are big, complex challenges with real impact – not just for the tax system, but for the broader community.
And as always, we’ll be listening to feedback along the way.
Our services
One of the most important roles we have is providing day to day services to taxpayers, either directly or through agents.
I acknowledge that our performance across this area has not been where we want it to be.
Over the last 12 to 18 months there has been an organisational focus on improving our frontline operations, and I am pleased to say that we are starting to see improvements across the system over the last financial year.
To illustrate this:
- We answered 678,000 additional calls compared to the previous year and had a 21% reduction in call wait times.
- We ended the financial year with the lowest backlog of processing for 4 years and a 41% reduction on previous years.
- We have overhauled how we treat comprised identities to now resolve them earlier and remediate accounts – we also have freed up the ability for tax agents to work on their clients with compromised accounts without contacting the ATO.
ATO leadership has agreed to a 5-year plan to take the next step up in our interactions with agents and taxpayers, with plans for:
- a new platform for our call centre, which will automate and speed up enquiries
- digital 2-way communication between the ATO and agents
- enhancing our online services and driving use and functionality of the ATO app.
Welcoming scrutiny
It’s important that we don’t rest on our laurels. As a large government agency with extensive powers, we are appropriately subject to scrutiny.
And we welcome that scrutiny, particularly from those sources whose expertise is essential to unearth areas for genuine improvement.
ATO letters
Last month the Tax Ombudsman, Ruth Owen, who you will hear from shortly, released a reportExternal Link on a sample of the letters that we routinely send to taxpayers.
The resulting report acknowledges the great efforts our staff go to in order to achieve the balance between technical accuracy and plain language, but highlighted that there are improvements to be made on clarity and tone.
This report also complements our Interactions Strategy – an enterprise strategy currently under development that sets out our vision for how we want to interact with the community, including of course tax agents, in a meaningful way.
The strategy will shape every interaction we have with the entire community and I look forward to providing updates to stakeholders as we progress this work.
ATO’s registered agent phone line
And, no doubt of interest to this audience, the Tax Ombudsman will soon release her findings of her reviewExternal Link of the effectiveness of our registered agent phone line.
We heard there was some dissatisfaction with wait times and the service provided.
We all need to be clear about what are realistic expectations of what we as the ATO can and indeed should actually provide – especially in the context of our junior frontline staff dealing with qualified tax professionals.
I look forward to hearing the outcomes of the review so that we can set proper expectations and make improvements to better engage with you.
Tax professionals as complexity brokers
We understand that the tax system is complex, which is why your role is so important.
Tax professionals remain one of the tax system’s primary complexity brokers. You take the intricate, often-changing rules of the system and help people to translate them into something they can act on.
That’s not easy. And it’s becoming more important than ever.
As the tax system evolves, simple individual and small business tax affairs become just that – simple. This is because of new secure technologies like the ATO app, digital systems that provide seamless interactions and our capacity to pre-fill a lot of information on personal tax returns.
And as they become more simple, your role becomes even more critical for those taxpayers with more complex affairs who need extra support.
We see you as partners in stewardship. Not just service providers, but our partners in a system that needs to work for everyone.
You help clients make informed decisions.
You help us understand what’s working and what’s not.
And you help bridge the gap between process and practice for individuals and business.
Our approach to debt management
Before I go further, I think it’s important that I acknowledge the concerns that have been raised in the media recently about the ATO’s decisions and practices, particularly around our approach to debt, general interest charge (GIC) remission and GST fraud. I’ll speak to each of these briefly.
As outlined in our corporate plan, the ATO is focused on reducing unpaid tax and withheld arrears and bringing down the government’s $50 billion collectable debt book.
This debt is not disputed, most of it has been self-reported, and a significant portion is made up of amounts that have been withheld from employees’ wages and collected from consumers as GST – but not passed on to government.
On multiple occasions I’ve made it clear to the Australian public that we need to do more to meet our obligation to recover this $50 billion of debt.
I’ve mentioned this repeatedly at our appearances in front of the Senate Economics Committee, in speeches published to the ATO website, and my foreword to the ATO’s most recent annual report.
We’re directing our firmest efforts toward the 22,000 taxpayers who owe $11 billion – that’s just 1% of debtors, but they account for 20% of the total collectable debt.
It’s a significant priority for us, and we’re using every tool available to recover what’s owed from those 22,000.
Our tax system relies on self-assessment, with it being the responsibility of every taxpayer to lodge correct returns. Because most Australians do the right thing, the system is designed to make it easy for legitimate businesses to obtain GST refunds without going through onerous checks.
Unfortunately, a very small minority of taxpayers abuse this, and we have sophisticated tools to catch them.
GST fraud has been a major challenge, and Operation Protego was our response to a rapid surge in fraudulent activity. We stopped $2.7 billion in false refunds, identified 57,000 fraudsters and corrected every one of their assessments.
These debts are being actively pursued and we are continuing to apply consequences for those taxpayers who have defrauded the system.
And, while previously we were legally constrained to process GST refunds in 14 days, recent legislative change means we now have 30 days to process refunds, allowing us more time to detect and investigate potential fraud before a refund is issued.
General interest charge remissions
Lastly, there has been some robust commentary from the tax profession on our approach to GIC remission.
There’s some important context here. During COVID as our efforts varied in order to support business through the pandemic, our approach to GIC remissions moved in line with it.
As a result, during COVID we saw a rise in remission requests that resulted in either full or partial remission of GIC – to over 90% on average.
The drop in GIC remissions that we are now seeing is a move to returning to normal practices, post-pandemic, as we make sure that GIC remissions happen only when it’s appropriate.
In making those decisions we need to consider the purpose of GIC, as a dis-incentive for business to pay their tax debt late, potentially receiving an unfair commercial advantage as a result. We want to ensure the incentive to pay on time remains strong.
But we are hearing concerns of inconsistency.
Accordingly, we are reviewing out approach to GIC remissions to ensure as much consistency as possible in decision making.
We also look forward to the upcoming reviewExternal Link by the Tax Ombudsman on our management of GIC remission.
Vulnerability Framework
We recognise that that not everyone experiences the tax system the same way. Health issues, family and domestic violence, financial hardship, financial coercion – these all significantly shape how people engage with their tax obligations, and with us.
The ATO’s Vulnerability Framework is designed to enhance our support for individuals facing vulnerabilities.
It outlines a commitment to fostering more inclusive and consistent interactions with the community, ensuring those in vulnerable situations receive appropriate assistance when dealing with their tax matters.
In reading the CPA’s submission to the Framework development, I can see the concern tax professionals feel when it comes to assisting your clients who are experiencing challenging circumstances to navigate the tax system.
We share a goal to increase transparency, provide clear guidance and facilitate constructive engagement with you and your clients.
While the Framework cannot change existing tax obligations, it will serve as a guiding approach for how we listen, communicate and connect individuals to the right support.
The Framework aims to address gaps in understanding and accessibility, ultimately leading to a more supportive environment for those in need.
And again, tax professionals play a vital role here. You’re often the first to spot when something’s not right. You’re the ones who advocate, who guide, who support.
We want to work with you to make sure the way we administer the tax system is not just efficient – but empathetic.
Closing
So, what does the road ahead look like?
To me, it looks collaborative. It looks adaptive. It looks challenging at times, but also positive. After all, tax professionals and the ATO share the same ultimate goal, to make the tax system the best it can be for taxpayers.
At the ATO, we’re committed to walking that path with you as partners in that tax system.
Thank you.