Dear Private Requester

Thank you for your email.

The documents that set out the rates at which taxation is payable by individuals and other kinds of entities, including by individuals in different income brackets, are the various Commonwealth taxation laws (both Acts and Regulations).

You can find these freely available on the ATO website (www.ato.gov.au). They are also available on the Federal Register of Legislation (www.legislation.gov.au).

As legislation is material maintained for reference purposes that is publicly available, it is not a 'document' for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (see the definition of 'document' in section 4 of the FOI Act). This means that you cannot request access to copies of the legislation under section 15 of the FOI Act 1982, and the ATO will not be treating your email as a valid FOI request.

You may also find it helpful to view information about tax rates on the ATO website, at www.ato.gov.au.

FOI Team
Australian Taxation Office
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IMPORTANT
The information transmitted is for the use of the intended
recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally
privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in
reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other
than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in
severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error
please notify the Privacy Hotline of the Australian Taxation
Office, telephone 1300 661 542 and delete all copies of this
transmission together with any attachments.
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Dear Private Requester

Thank you for your email.  As you are seeking information rather than
documents, we are replying with further information to assist you rather
than making an FOI original decision or FOI internal review decision. 
Furthermore, the relevant information we can provide is publicly available
information for which an FOI request is not needed.

You have asked for information about whether there is a system the ATO
uses to calculate debts after a person lodges their income tax return.

Information on the ATO website explains that:

'You may receive a tax bill if you:
•       are an employee and enough tax hasn't been withheld from the
payments made to you by your employer
•       are a sole trader and haven't paid enough tax to the ATO
throughout the year
•       receive other income where no tax was withheld.'

In other words, a tax debt occurs where the tax a person has already paid
during the year (usually by withholding from payments made by an employer
or other payer) is less than the tax payable by the person on their
taxable income for that year.  The tax payable by a person is calculated
in accordance with taxation law, in particular with the legislated tax
rates for different income brackets.  ATO systems are programmed to make
these calculations in accordance with that legislation. This information
is explained on the ATO website.

[1]https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Lodgi...

ATO website information also explains what happens if a person does not
pay their tax bill on time.

[2]https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Paying-th...

You mentioned that you have the income tax rates, but there is also
information about these on our website at the following page.

[3]https://www.ato.gov.au/Rates/Individual-...

You also referred to how tax revenue is spent.  Our website explains that
taxpayers who lodge an income tax return and receive a notice of
assessment including assessed income tax of $100 or more for the year are
issued with a 'tax receipt'.  A tax receipt contains a table showing how
the taxpayer's taxes have been allocated to key categories of government
expenditure. The tax receipt also includes information on the level of
Australian Government gross debt for the current and previous years. This
is to increase transparency on how the government spends taxpayers'
money.  More information is on our website at the following link.

[4]https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Lodgi...

I hope that this information is of assistance to you.  You might also find
other information on the website of interest.  The ATO has information
about all aspects of taxation obligations on our website, including all
taxation laws, and many rulings and practice statements that explain the
application of taxation laws.

FOI Team
Australian Taxation Office

-----Original Message-----
From: Private Requester
[[5]mailto:[FOI #5892 email]]
Sent: Tuesday, 12 November 2019 7:31 PM
To: General Counsel Requests
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Individuals
hard working Australians RFI

Dear General Counsel Requests,

You misunderstood the request for information.
To clarify I do have access to legislation and rates however I’m
requesting whether there is a system that the ATO uses to calculate debts
following tax return requests. I would have to be more specific the
Robodebt that Centrelink introduced few years ago.
I’m seeking a simple justification on how your systems operates I think
the ATO owes it to the public to have visibility to disclose this info in
line with straight line accounting standards.
As the allocation of the tax collected from low income earners for
unnecessary infrastructure projects due to Govt poor planning I think it’s
fair for the public to have some visibility on your ethical methodologies
and systems.

Yours sincerely,

Private Requester

-----Original Message-----

Dear Private Requester

Thank you for your email.

The documents that set out the rates at which taxation is payable by
individuals and other kinds of entities, including by individuals in
different income brackets, are the various Commonwealth taxation laws
(both Acts and Regulations).

You can find these freely available on the ATO website
([6]www.ato.gov.au). They are also available on the Federal Register of
Legislation ([7]www.legislation.gov.au).

As legislation is material maintained for reference purposes that is
publicly available, it is not a 'document' for the purposes of the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (see the definition of 'document' in section 4 of
the FOI Act). This means that you cannot request access to copies of the
legislation under section 15 of the FOI Act 1982, and the ATO will not be
treating your email as a valid FOI request.

You may also find it helpful to view information about tax rates on the
ATO website, at [8]www.ato.gov.au.
 
FOI Team
Australian Taxation Office

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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #5892 email]

This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This
message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet.
More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
[9]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

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**********************************************************************

IMPORTANT

    The information transmitted is for the use of the intended

recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally

privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure,

dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in

reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other

than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in

severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error

please notify the Privacy Hotline of the Australian Taxation

Office, telephone 1300 661 542 and delete all copies of this

transmission together with any attachments.

*********************************************************************

References

Visible links
1. https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Lodgi...
2. https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Paying-th...
3. https://www.ato.gov.au/Rates/Individual-...
4. https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Lodgi...
5. mailto:[FOI #5892 email]
6. http://www.ato.gov.au/
7. http://www.legislation.gov.au/
8. http://www.ato.gov.au/
9. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

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