At a Press Club address earlier this year, Commissioner Chris Jordan said part of his job is to help taxpayers by “hiding the complexity” of our tax system.
Suna Rizalar, from the ATO’s Public Advice and Guidance, says one way the ATO tries to make it easier for taxpayers “is by engaging with the community on simpler terms and in more contemporary ways in the provision of public advice and guidance”.
To this end, the ATO regularly releases on its legal database a series of what until recently have been internal ATO documents.
The release of these documents in an initiative that the ATO has labelled “iNOW!” (a contraction of “interpretation now”) and has, according to Rizalar, a similar objective as mentioned by Jordan — to present legislative and legal interpretation in a way that “hides the complexity”.
Assistant commissioner Gordon Brysland, who represents the Tax Counsel Network, says: “iNOW! began as a way to address the need – recognised by top judges – for those working with legislation to get better at reading it.” The iNOW! documents are therefore aimed at improving awareness about statutory interpretation. The documents, which are labelled “episodes”, are not public rulings or legal advice and are not binding on the ATO.
Since Tax & Super last provided access to iNow! documents, three episodes have been published. Episode 26, which deals with “ordinary” words, statutes “as a whole”, the mischief rule, and “under or in relation to”. Episode 27 looks at extrinsic materials, the context of judgment words, not taking definitions in isolation, and the impossibility of “non-contextual” statements. Episode 28 deals with the need or otherwise of interpretation on the back of “mere inconvenience”, backdated agreements, delegated legislation, and the limits of using dictionaries.
The monthly iNow! series began in June 2015, and the ATO says it has made them public in response to growing external interest. Until now, they have been filed under “miscellaneous papers” in the ATO’s legal database.
The episodes released already can be found on the legal database page. Type “interpretation NOW” into the search toolbar on that page and scroll down the resulting list of results to find all 28 episodes (all with CPD value). More episodes will be added each month, so it may be worthwhile to bookmark the page.
‘Hiding the complexity’ — internal ATO documents released ‘Hiding the complexity’ — internal ATO documents released ‘Hiding the complexity’ — internal ATO documents released ‘Hiding the complexity’ — internal ATO documents released
# [ATO], [documents], [interpretation], [legislation], [tax counsel]
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