The Review into Aspects of the Pay as You Go (PAYG) Instalments System is the first Inspector-General of Taxation (IGT) review to be undertaken in direct response to insights drawn from the IGT’s complaint handling service. It had stakeholder support during consultation on the IGT 2017 work program and attracted submissions from individual taxpayers, tax practitioners and their representative bodies.

A key focus of the review was individual taxpayers’ awareness and understanding of the PAYG instalments system. Individual taxpayers were unclear as to why they had been entered into the system, its requirements and exemptions, its interaction with the annual income tax system and the support tools available to them. Accordingly, the IGT recommended a number of improvements to the ATO’s taxpayer communication and guidance materials as well as internal staff education and support.

The report has been publicly released together with the Australian Taxation Office response; there are seven recommendations comprising 22 parts. The implementation of the agreed recommendations should result in significant improvements for individual PAYG instalment taxpayers, their representatives and the ATO.

(Source: Inspector-General of Taxation)

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