Not so long ago the Tax Office was stimulating the economy by handing out millions in $900 gifts of cash, compliments of the federal government. Now it is putting the brakes on the economy by delaying the issue of millions in refund cheques. This is causing hardship to taxpayers who rely on getting their tax refunds in January or February to pay their Christmas credit card bills. It is also jeopardising the businesses of many struggling sole-practitioner tax agents. Their clients don’t pay them until they get their money or assessments from the ATO, so the inward cash flow of these tax agents has dried up.
The Tax Office’s poor IT systems and management skills are so bad that it cannot tell tax agents when a particular client refund cheque will arrive. Age-old rules such as first-in-first-out, whereby (all other things being equal) the tax returns lodged earliest are processed first, have been dumped. Now, to get a client’s refund out of the ATO’s door the tax agent must apply to have the case “escalated”.
The present stuff-up stems, according to the Tax Office, from its new computer software. This raises more questions about efficient management than it answers. Was the software — which was obviously going to have an impact on thousands of people this year and millions of people in years to come — thoroughly tested before the switch over? Who wrote the software? How much did it cost? Is action being taken to recover damages? Is anyone being made accountable?
Tax agents can view the progress of their client’s tax returns on the Tax Office internet portal. What they are seeing on that portal has them dumbfounded. For example, it reveals a lack of logic in the order in which assessments are processed. It states that refunds have been issued when in fact they have not. Telephone inquiries by tax agents are being met with the response that the refund has been issued but it has not yet left the Tax Office’s doors and “we don’t know where it is”, but “it will sent out soon, although if you want to be sure you will get it in two weeks you should apply for it to be escalated”.
The new member for Norwood in South Australia will be Steven Marshall, who owns a yacht named Public Enemy at the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia. I wonder what the significance of that name is, and whether it might be changed given his new status?
Which talented young press gallery journalist has set tongues wagging in recent months with her sharp tongue and opinionated ways? Muttering among the older heads of the gallery is growing and some are beginning to wonder how long it will be before this bright young flame burns out. Someone needs to take her aside and tell her to pull her head in for her own sake.
There is a very large picture of Tony Abbott on page 4 of today’s West Australian showing a very even strip of bare skin between the top of his budgie smugglers and the rug on his stomach. Undeniably a bit of manscaping going on there. The question is, how low does it go?
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