Complaints about our investigation

Complaints about our investigation

Review of our investigation findings or process

If you are not satisfied with our investigation findings or process concerning your dispute with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), you are encouraged to discuss your concerns directly with the IGTO investigating officer in the first instance. The officer will seek to explain how they came to their findings and discuss any questions you may have.

If you remain dissatisfied, you may request a reconsideration or internal review of your dispute.

If you have concerns about the professional conduct of our staff, please refer to Complaints about our service and conduct.

Our reconsideration and internal review processes are consistent with the principles of procedural fairness and acknowledge that it is possible for us to make mistakes or that important information was not provided to us in the course of an investigation. These processes also enable us to learn from our mistakes in order to continuously improve our work practices.

Requesting a reconsideration or internal review

We invest significant time throughout our investigation. This is to ensure that all relevant information about the actions and decisions which are the subject of your dispute is appropriately considered. Given this investment, we ask that you submit requests for reconsideration or internal review within 10 business days from the date we advise you of our findings. Such requests should be made in writing, where possible, to [email protected]. Requests may be accepted after this time if there are exceptional circumstances that prevented you from doing so earlier. However, you will need to provide clear reasons for the delay.

Requests for reconsideration or internal review must:

  • state the relevant case reference number;
  • include details of the findings for which reconsideration or internal review is sought;
  • clearly explain your reasons for seeking a reconsideration or internal review— for example:
    • if you consider our investigation’s findings of fact are incorrect, you must provide supporting evidence where possible;
    • if you consider our investigation’s reasoning is incorrect, you must clearly explain why, along with what you consider would be the correct reasoning and how it is supported by the facts in your case.
  • include any new and/or additional information not previously provided (for reconsideration only).

All requests will be considered in line with our policies and procedures. Importantly, reconsiderations and internal reviews will only be undertaken once.

Reconsideration

You may seek a reconsideration where you are not satisfied with our original investigation findings, and you have new information that was not previously provided to the original IGTO officer which, if it had been provided, would likely have changed their original decision.

If we agree to reconsider your dispute, the reconsideration is undertaken by the original IGTO officer. This provides the officer with the opportunity to review the original findings in light of the new available information. This approach reduces duplication of process and leads to faster resolution for you.

Reconsideration will result in one of two outcomes:

  • new investigation findings are reached having regard to the new information; or
  • the original investigation findings are affirmed.

Internal review

You may request an internal review of our investigation findings if you are dissatisfied with our reconsideration, or, if there is no new information to support a reconsideration and you do not agree with the original investigation findings. If you have additional relevant information that you have not previously provided to the original IGTO officer, then you must do so during the reconsideration process outlined above for the reasons noted earlier.

If we agree to an internal review of our investigation findings, your request for review will be considered by an officer who was not involved in the original investigation of your dispute.

Importantly, a review is not a re-investigation of your dispute. We will assess whether the processes adopted by our staff in reaching the investigation findings were fair and appropriate and the findings reached were reasonable having regard to the information available and the reasons or grounds that you have raised.

A review will result in one of three outcomes:

  • the investigation is re-opened due to the original investigation findings being sufficiently incorrect, uncertain or incomplete such that it would be appropriate to re-examine the matter or aspects of it;
  • new investigation findings are made and replace the original findings (or an aspect of the findings) without any further investigation, where appropriate to do so; or
  • the original investigation findings are affirmed and no further action is required.

Complaints about our investigation

Review of our investigation findings or process

If you are not satisfied with our investigation findings or process concerning your dispute with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), you are encouraged to discuss your concerns directly with the IGTO investigating officer in the first instance. The officer will seek to explain how they came to their findings and discuss any questions you may have.

If you remain dissatisfied, you may request a reconsideration or internal review of your dispute.

If you have concerns about the professional conduct of our staff, please refer to Complaints about our service and conduct.

Our reconsideration and internal review processes are consistent with the principles of procedural fairness and acknowledge that it is possible for us to make mistakes or that important information was not provided to us in the course of an investigation. These processes also enable us to learn from our mistakes in order to continuously improve our work practices.

Requesting a reconsideration or internal review

We invest significant time throughout our investigation. This is to ensure that all relevant information about the actions and decisions which are the subject of your dispute is appropriately considered. Given this investment, we ask that you submit requests for reconsideration or internal review within 10 business days from the date we advise you of our findings. Such requests should be made in writing, where possible, to [email protected]. Requests may be accepted after this time if there are exceptional circumstances that prevented you from doing so earlier. However, you will need to provide clear reasons for the delay.

Requests for reconsideration or internal review must:

  • state the relevant case reference number;
  • include details of the findings for which reconsideration or internal review is sought;
  • clearly explain your reasons for seeking a reconsideration or internal review— for example:
    • if you consider our investigation’s findings of fact are incorrect, you must provide supporting evidence where possible;
    • if you consider our investigation’s reasoning is incorrect, you must clearly explain why, along with what you consider would be the correct reasoning and how it is supported by the facts in your case.
  • include any new and/or additional information not previously provided (for reconsideration only).

All requests will be considered in line with our policies and procedures. Importantly, reconsiderations and internal reviews will only be undertaken once.

Reconsideration

You may seek a reconsideration where you are not satisfied with our original investigation findings, and you have new information that was not previously provided to the original IGTO officer which, if it had been provided, would likely have changed their original decision.

If we agree to reconsider your dispute, the reconsideration is undertaken by the original IGTO officer. This provides the officer with the opportunity to review the original findings in light of the new available information. This approach reduces duplication of process and leads to faster resolution for you.

Reconsideration will result in one of two outcomes:

  • new investigation findings are reached having regard to the new information; or
  • the original investigation findings are affirmed.

Internal review

You may request an internal review of our investigation findings if you are dissatisfied with our reconsideration, or, if there is no new information to support a reconsideration and you do not agree with the original investigation findings. If you have additional relevant information that you have not previously provided to the original IGTO officer, then you must do so during the reconsideration process outlined above for the reasons noted earlier.

If we agree to an internal review of our investigation findings, your request for review will be considered by an officer who was not involved in the original investigation of your dispute.

Importantly, a review is not a re-investigation of your dispute. We will assess whether the processes adopted by our staff in reaching the investigation findings were fair and appropriate and the findings reached were reasonable having regard to the information available and the reasons or grounds that you have raised.

A review will result in one of three outcomes:

  • the investigation is re-opened due to the original investigation findings being sufficiently incorrect, uncertain or incomplete such that it would be appropriate to re-examine the matter or aspects of it;
  • new investigation findings are made and replace the original findings (or an aspect of the findings) without any further investigation, where appropriate to do so; or
  • the original investigation findings are affirmed and no further action is required.