At a glance
- Tax Ombudsman Ruth Owen urges accountants to complain to drive systemic change.
- Owen is disappointed by the ATO’s response to agent phone line concerns.
- Intensified ATO debt collection is placing huge stress on small businesses.
- Priorities include financial abuse victims, digital services and Payday Super readiness.
If Australia’s Tax Ombudsman Ruth Owen could offer one piece of advice to accountants, it would be: don’t be afraid to complain.
Listening to complaints from tax practitioners and taxpayers is a major part of her job. In fact, her office receives between 2,000 and 3,000 of them each year.
These complaints come from those who’ve already raised issues with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) but remain dissatisfied and turn to the Ombudsman for help.
“I’m an escalation service, so by the time people reach me, they’re extremely frustrated,” says Owen.
“Our service is empathetic and compassionate, understanding that people are at a point where they’re facing some very, very challenging situations and need help.”
Complaints the Ombudsman receives cover a broad range of issues, including payments, refunds, debt collection, General Interest Charge (GIC) remission or payment arrangements, director penalty notices, small business restructuring and super guarantee shortfalls.
Owen says the number of complaints to her office has “increased significantly over the last six to nine months” – which is both good and bad, she says.
Bad because it highlights tensions and pressure points within Australia’s tax system, but good because complaints bring about change.
‘Disappointment’ over agent phone line review
Owen says her recent review on the ATO’s registered agent phone line only came about because of widespread gripes among tax agents about its poor service, inconsistent advice and lack of specialised staff.
“When I presented my report about the agent phone line, the ATO initially said, ‘We don’t think this is a problem, Ruth, because no one’s complained’,” she recalls. “But I told them that every single agent I’ve ever spoken with has told me this is a problem.
“That’s a clear lesson: if you encounter problems with ATO services, take a moment to file a complaint.”
Following her review, Owen recommended the ATO clearly demonstrate the value of tax agents, enhance digital services, route agent calls to experienced staff and develop better ways to measure call quality and issue resolution.
While the ATO agreed to improve digital services and call quality monitoring, it declined the proposal to dedicate a specialised phone team for agents, a decision Owen told IPA delegates she finds disappointing.
“Although agents receive priority service, their calls ultimately go to a generic call centre alongside public callers, where staff often lack the necessary expertise.
“When I learned the turnover in these call centres over the last two years… that was my kind of light bulb moment of, ‘Oh, now I understand’.”
Owen says she would like to see the ATO use the contracted call centre less and direct agent calls to permanent, experienced ATO employees.
Yet beyond service issues, she says her review revealed a deeper concern.
“Agents feel like the tax office doesn’t value them. The review opened up a much broader concern for me about the relationship between tax agents and the ATO.”
Debt collection placing ‘huge stress’ on businesses
This delicate relationship has been strained further over the past two years by the ATO’s intensified efforts to recover historic debt accrued during the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting both accountants and their clients alike.
While the ATO says it prefers engagement over enforcement, it is increasingly taking firm actions such as issuing director penalty notices, disclosing debts to credit agencies and imposing strict payment plans that many taxpayers find restrictive.
As ATO Deputy Commissioner Vivek Chaudhary said in 2022, “We cannot help taxpayers who do not engage with us. Where taxpayers don’t engage, the ATO is taking firmer actions.”
Many taxpayers and small businesses who withheld payments to manage cash flow have now accumulated significant debt and interest. The Small Business Debt Helpline reported a 66% rise in cases over the past year, with ATO debts making up around 60% of their workload. Owen says ATO debt collection now represents two-thirds of her complaints.
“The ATO’s tightened grip on collecting uncontested debt is really hitting small businesses, and dominating conversations I’m having with taxpayers and small businesses on a daily basis,” Owen says.
“A lot of small business owners are under huge amounts of stress.”
Owen supports the ATO’s efforts to reduce national tax debt but urges the agency to be more flexible and consider individual taxpayers’ and small businesses’ circumstances.
“Working at scale can mean people fall between the cracks. And I believe the ATO needs to pay much more attention to the people that might fall through those cracks unwittingly.”
She advocates for more accommodating payment plans.
“Pretty much everybody I deal with is desperately trying to pay their tax but they’ve simply got themselves into all sorts of difficulties. The ATO might not accept a long-term payment plan but I’d rather see a small business pay back tax over three years than see it go bankrupt. Our economy needs small businesses.
“In my view, helping vulnerable people is an important strategy.”
‘The ability to change lives’
Assisting those in need and making systems fairer has always been a principal driver for the 57-year-old. Over Owen’s 30-year public service career, two moments stand out.
Early on, at the-then UK Benefits Agency, she worked to ensure people had the resources they needed to live and work.
“It was a dream job; I had the ability to change people’s lives,” she says.
Then, during the Global Financial Crisis at Jobcentre Plus, the UK’s welfare and employment service, she had the opportunity to make an even greater impact.
“I helped millions of people who lost their jobs really quickly get back into work. That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of.”
Her UK career culminated in a role as director-general of customer service at the UK tax office HMRC, where she transformed digital services and, naturally, the complaints system.
“I’d rather see a small business pay back tax over three years than see it go bankrupt. Our economy needs small businesses.”
Ruth Owen, Tax Ombudsman
After moving to Australia in 2017, she served as COO of NSW Education, then deputy secretary of the NSW Premier’s Department, before becoming Tax Ombudsman in July 2024.
Owen describes her current role as “a brilliant combination” of being able to help individuals who’ve struggled with the system while also being able to drive systemic change.
“That’s very exciting for me,” she says. “The voice of agents, the voice of the ATO and the voice of taxpayers all matter deeply to me.”
Priorities for 2026
One of Owen’s particular passions is helping women who have suffered financial abuse.
In early 2025, she released a report highlighting how abusers exploit the tax system to inflict financial abuse on their partners through coercive control and fraud. It’s often only after separation that the victim realises their name is attached to huge amounts of debt, often in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The report calls for better victim support, improved agency coordination, stronger penalties for abusers, and crucially, changes to tax laws to allow the ATO to permanently write off or transfer abusive debts – powers it currently lacks.
“The ATO has welcomed the report and recommendations,” says Owen. “And I’m really looking forward to driving system reform in this area and working with government on legislation to enable debt waivers for survivors of financial abuse and domestic violence.”
Going into 2026, Owen is focused on improving digital services for agents and investigating how AI can assist complainants in structuring complaints while also helping her team glean insights from the complaints they receive.
She’s also deciding on topics for upcoming reviews. The current shortlist includes:
- director penalty notices;
- online services for agents;
- management of compromised accounts;
- engagement with First Nations taxpayers;
- Payday Super;
- the ATO’s use of artificial intelligence;
- Tax Practitioners Board breach reporting; and
- family trust elections.
When it comes to timely advice for tax agents and small business owners going into the new year, she urges them to get on top of their tax.
“That’s certainly the lesson from the last few years. It may be attractive to delay paying tax to manage cash flow. But that just isn’t a sensible strategy. If, for whatever reason, one of your suppliers or the supplier to one of your clients goes bust, the best thing to do is engage early with the ATO and to get onto a payment plan to get back on track as quickly as possible.”
With Payday Super coming in next July, which requires employers to pay superannuation contributions to employees at the same time as their wages rather than quarterly, employers and accountants need to be extra vigilant for their own sake and their clients’, she adds.
“Agents have a real responsibility within the overall tax and superannuation system to get people to understand it, engage with it and comply with it.”
Complaint can drive change
And what else can tax agents and small business owners do next year to help themselves?
Complain, says Owen.
“Many tax agents and accountants worry that complaining to the ATO might lead to more frequent audits for their clients, but that’s not true; the complaint system operates independently from those who make tax decisions.”
And if the ATO doesn’t resolve an issue, bring it to the Tax Ombudsman, she adds.
“Our tax system needs to work for tax agents and taxpayers alike. Making this the case starts with complaints, and using those complaints to drive systemic change offers an even greater opportunity.”
Learn more about how the IPA is advocating for the profession here.
