Is there a perception of revenue bias on the part of the ATO in private binding rulings on large, complex issues?

Published on 01 Sep 08 by "AUSTRALIAN TAX FORUM" JOURNAL ARTICLE

Research was conducted on behalf of the Inspector General of Taxation (IGT) into the perception of revenue bias on the part of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in private binding rulings on large, complex matters. The population for the research was limited to those internal and external advisers who had applied for a private binding ruling (PBR) between 1 July 2003 and 30 June 2005 for a corporate taxpayer with an annual turnover in excess of $100 million. The ATO identified approximately 350 individuals who satisfied these conditions, from which the IGT selected a random sample of 50 per cent who were then contacted by the researchers and invited to participate in a telephone survey. A high response rate (86.4 per cent) was achieved.

Author profiles

Prof Margaret McKerchar

Margaret is a Professor Australian School of Business, School of Taxation and Business Law, The University of New South Wales. - Current at 01 July 2015

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Dr Helen Hodgson CTA

Helen joined Curtin Law School as an Associate Professor in 2014, following 10 years teaching in the Atax programme at UNSW. Helen has a particular interest in tax policy, and was a participant at the 2010 Tax Forum. Her current area of research is the tax-transfer system, but she also researches in superannuation, and the gender impacts of the tax-transfer system. In 2010, Helen was a co-author of the Women's Voices Report commissioned by the Equality Rights Alliance to examine factors influencing women's workforce participation, including superannuation, tax and transfer issues. Helen holds qualifications in accounting, business law and taxation, and is a Fellow of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants. - Current at 12 January 2017

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Kalmen Datt FTI

Kalmen is a Senior Lecturer at ATAX with extensive experience as a barrister having appeared in courts at all levels in South Africa and New Zealand. He is admitted as a legal practitioner in NSW. He has hands-on experience in tax having worked for the New Zealand Inland Revenue authorities as a solicitor and team leader in their Technical Legal Support Group where he inter alia had sole responsibility for advice to one of the Anti Avoidance teams as well as advising on all other tax issues. He lectures in Principles of Australian Tax, GST, CGT, Tax Administration, Tax Litigation and the New Zealand component of Asia Pacific Tax Regimes and was the recipient of a UNSW Learning and Teaching Award in 2005 - Current at 21 June 2013

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