iscoverThe Tax Office has pledged to commit to an improvement of its service operations for tax practitioners, a move that has been welcomed by the professional accounting body.
CPA welcomes ATO’s commitment to service improvements
15 August 2025
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9 minute read
At the CPA Australia Tax Forum hosted on Wednesday (13 August), the Commissioner of Taxation revealed the ATO’s plan to improve its service operations after its performance was noted to be lacking.
In his address to the forum, Rob Heferen, Commissioner of Taxation, said the ATO’s performance “has not been where we want it to be”, as well as addressing other concerns raised by CPA members.
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The forum attracted tax professionals, policymakers and industry leaders, all of whom raised concern over the ATO’s frontline services, such as its letters and registered tax agent phone line.
Heferen noted that to “improve service operations”, the ATO had plans for a new platform for its call centre to automate and speed up enquiries, digital two-way communication between the ATO and agents and improvements to the ATO App.
Jenny Wong, CPA Australia tax lead, welcomed the commissioner’s focus on delivering an improvement in services to CPA members and other tax professionals.
“Effective tax administration is just as important as sound policy or the level of tax rates. Even the best-designed tax laws can falter if they’re administered inefficiently, inconsistently, or in ways that are hard to navigate,” she said.
“Over the past year, members have told us that their biggest challenges often come not from the legislation itself, but from the practicalities of dealing with the system – it’s day-to-day friction points like delayed response times, unclear or inconsistent guidance, repeated requests for the same information, difficulty assessing the right ATO contact, or confusion around administration processes.”
In his speech, Heferen added that the ATO understood it was subject to scrutiny, which was welcome, “particularly from those sources whose expertise is essential to unearth areas for genuine improvement”.
Despite having acknowledged the need for improvement and that the desired performance was not where it was needed, nor wanted to be, Heferen said there had been improvements over the last 12 to 18 months across the Tax Office.
Such improvements included the ATO having answered 678,000 additional phone calls compared to the previous year and a 21 per cent reduction in call wait times. The ATO also ended the financial year with the lowest backlog of processing for four years, according to the commissioner.
The ATO’s approach to general interest charge (GIC) was also noted within the address, which had received a significant amount of backlash from the community, leading to the decision to review its approach to GIC remissions to ensure consistent decision making.
“There has been some robust commentary from the tax profession on our approach to GIC remission,” Heferen said.
According to the commissioner, the ATO’s approach to GIC remissions moved in line with COVID, during which there was a rise in remission requests “that resulted in either full or partial remission of GIC, to over 90 per cent 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 are happy only when it’s appropriate,” Heferen said.
“In making those decisions we need to consider the purpose of GIC, as a disincentive for businesses 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.”
“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.”
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