The ATO released its 2022–23 corporate plan highlighting its key focus areas and priorities over the next financial year and small-business tax is at the forefront followed by developing an innovative business registry service, expanding the use of single touch payroll and collecting tax owed from COVID support payments.
Commissioner Chris Jordan said the ATO delivered vital stimulus during the pandemic and proved the ATO was more than a revenue collection agency.
“We are at the cutting edge of government service delivery, and we are continuing to undertake significant programs of work,” he said.
“We are continuing to undertake significant programs of work. We are acknowledged as a world-leading taxation authority.”
The ATO corporate plan 2022–23 highlights seven key focus areas that Mr Jordan said are strategically important this year, and another 19 core priorities that are essential to the ATO’s vision of being a leading tax, superannuation and registry administration.
“One of our most exciting and important areas of work is in our use of data and digital,” he said. “Data underpins our client service, our early intervention activities and our goal of prevention rather than correction. We’re simplifying interactions and embedding what we can into natural systems so people can get things right up front with minimal intervention from us,” he said.
“In 2022–23, this will see us further expand the use of Single Touch Payroll data to simplify employer reporting obligations and address superannuation guarantee non-compliance.
“We are focusing on improving small business tax performance by collaborating with partners to enable seamless tax reporting from business source systems. We continue to roll out innovations in the Australian Business Registry Services, making it simpler for businesses to interact with government.”
The ATO will also be undertaking targeted strategies to address collectable debt, re-engaging with clients to tailor solutions to their circumstances, and doing so with empathy and understanding.
The ATO plans to improve small-business tax performance and participation by collaborating with partners to build a digital-first tax ecosystem, enabling seamless tax reporting from business source systems.
This will help develop a road map for the enhanced integration of tax and superannuation into the digital ecosystem for small business and prototype concepts to streamline the tax experience, in consultation and co-design with external stakeholders.
It will also be endeavouring to deliver an innovative business registry service to make it simpler for businesses to interact with government and strengthen the integrity of registry data through the consolidation of multiple business registers in a single place to simplify how companies interact with government.
This will strengthen the integrity of the registry system by improving the quality and availability of registry and director identification number (director ID) data.
It will also be concentrating on collecting debt especially that arose through adjustments to support clients during COVID-19 by using data-driven insights to apply approaches to address greatest areas of collectable debt growth, in particular small business, with regard to taxpayer circumstances and capacity to pay.
The expansion of single touch payroll data will be supported by the introduction of new services enabling employers to validate and adjust pay-as-you-go (PAYG) withholding amounts reported through STP, from within their software and by making use of STP data to prefill withholding fields in activity statements and support employers to meet their PAYG withholding obligations.
“With the inclusion of our core priorities in the corporate plan this year, we aim to strengthen the connection our staff have with the plan and give everyone visibility of how they contribute,” Mr Jordan said.
