Volume of complaints to ATO almost doubles in 3 years: ANAO report

The audit report into the management of complaints by the ATO has been released, with the Australian National Audit Office finding the ATO's management of complaints to be largely effective.

The report noted that the ATO received 49,414 complaints in the 2023-24 financial year, an 99.7 per cent increase from the 2020-21 year.

Income tax had the highest number of complaint issues, increasing in volume from 4,583 complaints in 2020–21 to 15,915 in 2023–24.

Superannuation and client records were the next top three most common complaint issues during the years from 2020-21 to 2023-24, with the exception of 2023-2024 when lodge and pay complaints surpassed superannuation.

Analysis of cross-product issues indicates that ‘timeliness’ is the largest complaint issue across many business lines, accounting for 56.5 per cent of all complaints from 2020–21 to 2023–24, the ANAO said.

While the report found that the ATO's management of complaints was largely effective, it said that effectiveness would be improved if the ATO's analysis of its complaints data also sought to identify the underlying causes of complaints and used this information to improve business processes and complaints handling.

The report found that the ATO was largely effective at reporting on complaints, collecting complaint data to monitor incoming complaint volumes, categories of complaints, performance against service commitments and performance of key complaint topics.

"The data is used to generate internal reports based on the needs of individual business areas and bodies that meet to discuss complaint trends," the report said.

"Public reporting through the ATO Annual Report consists of the total number of complaints received and performance against the ATO service commitment targets. The ATO is able to determine which issue categories lead to increases in complaints but does not identify the root causes of these increases."

The report recommended that the ATO enhance its public reporting on complaint trends, causes, and outcomes in its Annual Report to better align with the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Better Practice Complaint Handling Guide to improve transparency to the Parliament.

It also recommended that the ATO conduct and documents any discussion with complainants before extending complaint due dates. The ATO should also communicate and document that review rights have been discussed with the complainant in accordance with its own guidance, the report said.

Responding to the report, the ATO said while complaints represent a very small portion of its interactions with taxpayers, it understand the importance of complaints in helping it to continue to improve its experience.

"We are proud of the work we do to deliver for the Australian community in a manner that meets government and community expectations," it said.

"We are pleased to see the ANAO has found the ATO has developed largely effective arrangements to handle complaints and that we monitor, report and process improvements effectively."

The ATO said it remained committed to understanding the systemic issues that may be driving trends through complaints as it enables it to continually improve how it operates.

"The ATO agrees with the four recommendations in the report," it said.

"Implementation of the recommendations and opportunities for improvement identified by the ANAO will help us further strengthen our complaints processes, and ensure we continue to effectively meet our commitments to taxpayers and the Australian Government."