The ACT Ombudsman has released its investigation report into the ACT Revenue Office’s (ACTRO) processes for identifying and collecting historical land tax debts.

During this investigation, the ACT Ombudsman sought to understand:

  • Why land tax debts were being raised years after a property had been sold?
  • What processes ACTRO was following in raising a debt assessment?
  • What assistance was being provided to people to understand the process and their rights to seek review?
  • Was ACTRO’s process reasonable when making decisions and conducting reviews?

Although land tax is self-assessed, and the law requires people to notify ACTRO when their property is liable for land tax, the ACT Ombudsman found that ACTRO is not doing enough to ensure it is raising and collecting historical land tax debts reasonably and fairly.

The ACT Ombudsman also found ACTRO has undertaken its land tax compliance program in such a way as to place a high burden on individuals, without giving reasonable consideration to individual circumstances prior to issuing debt assessments. It received a

high volume of objections, and the ACT Ombudsman found they are not providing timely responses to those objections.

The ACT Ombudsman made 4 recommendations aimed at influencing systemic improvement in fairness, accountability, transparency and communication in ACTRO’s raising and collection of historical land tax debts.

 

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