Overview
The directorate, through Revenue Management, administers taxation legislation in the ACT and a number of assistance schemes.
The directorate:
- maintains and enforces compliance with all taxes, grants and concessions administered by the ACT Revenue Office;
- provides advice on ACT taxation matters and the development and amendment of the Territory’s taxation legislation;
- administers a range of concession schemes on behalf of the Territory;
- provides financial management reporting and web management services;
- administers the Rental Bonds function; and
- provides a range of valuation services to government including for statutory rating purposes, lease variation determinations and administrative reviews.
Highlights
In 2018-19 the directorate:
- collected more than $1.7 billion in total taxation revenue;
- collected $12.26 million in revenue (including penalties and interest) through compliance activities;
- commenced a program of identifying and assessing landholder duty non-compliance; and
- delivered a Betting Operations Tax portal, a Self-Service portal for Payroll Tax and a Rental Bonds portal.
The directorate met or exceeded three out of five 2018-19 accountability indicators against this output.
The three accountability indicators met and exceeded were:
- Internal reviews of Objections completed within 6 months - 96% of objections determined in 2018-19 were completed within six months against a target of 85%;
- Internal reviews of Objections completed within 12 months - All objections determined in
2018-19 were completed within 12 months, meeting the target; and - Compliance revenue per inspector - In 2018-19, compliance revenue per inspector was $937,744 compared to the target of $650,000. A number of large payroll tax assessments and data-driven land tax compliance investigations contributed to the variation.
The accountability indicators not met were:
- Debt Management - level of overdue rates as a percentage of total rates revenue – The average level of overdue rates debt in 2018-19 was 8% compared to the target of 5.0%; and
- Debt Management - level of overdue debt (not including rates) as a percentage of tax revenue (not including rates) – The average level of collectable debt (not including rates) in 2018-19 was 3% compared to the target of 2.0%.
Levels of both rates and non-rates debt are above target levels. To address this, the ACT Revenue Office is implementing a number of new debt management strategies including SMS messaging, garnisheeing rental income and registering charges on property titles.
Future Direction
In 2019-20 the directorate will:
- collect taxes in accordance with the relevant legislation to provide services to the ACT community;
- enhance Rental Bonds portal to allow Tenants to transact digitally;
- move the Self-Service Portal (e.g. Payroll Tax) from using AusKey as an authentication method to the new MyGovId;
- start moving our concessions schemes to new systems that will also allow digital transactions with citizens;
- continue supporting Compliance with non-detection algorithms (Land Holder duty and enhancements to the existing Land Tax and Payroll Tax);
- commence development of a portal for online rates; and
- reduce red tape reduction for Energy Industry Levy payers.
Further information can be obtained from
Stephen Miners
Deputy Under Treasurer
Economic, Budget and Industrial Relations
+61 2 6207 5071
Stephen.Miners@act.gov.au
Kim Salisbury
Executive Group Manager
Revenue Management
+61 2 6207 0100
Kim.Salisbury@act.gov.au