Tax Professionals Call For Parliamentary Inquiry Into ATO Fraud Case

03 July 2003 Tax professionals in Australia have called for a parliamentary inquiry after eight current and former Australian Tax Office (ATO) employees were accused of defrauding the office of $2 million.

According to recent reports, the accused workers allegedly invented phoney taxpayer identities which were then used to siphon off up to $10,000 dollars at a time in bogus refunds. The fraud apparently used outsiders to open bank accounts in order to withdraw the money. It is said that the refunds were restricted to no more than $10,000 in the hopes they would go unnoticed.

However, an inquiry is thought to be unlikely, as both Tax Commissioner Michael Carmody and Assistant Treasurer Helen Coonan seem to have dismissed the idea, arguing that the case is being dealt with satisfactorily internally.

National Tax and Accountants Association president Ray Regan told The Age this week that the affair has shaken public confidence in the ATO, and that this will only be repaired by an inquiry in the Senate. "We've had a multimillion dollar fraud and it is in the national interest (to have an inquiry)," Regan stated, continuing:

"It's horrified the public to believe that the tax department, which expects the highest standards from individual taxpayers, has itself allowed the fraud involving millions of dollars to occur."

Nevertheless, the powers that be seemed unconcerned. Whilst Senator Coonan announced that she was "disappointed" by the episode, she suggested that: "The ATO - as a large and diverse organisation dealing with large sums of money - necessarily has comprehensive systems in place to prevent, detect and deal with any employee who may be tempted to engage in fraudulent activity."

Carmody meanwhile, commented that in an organisation employing some 20,000 people it was inevitable that there would be the odd rotten apple.