ATO’s Administration of valuation matters

ATO’s Administration of valuation matters

The Assistant Treasurer, the Honourable Josh Frydenberg, today released the Inspector-General of Taxation’s Review into the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) administration of valuation matters.

Valuation requirements have been an area of ongoing concern for taxpayers. The Inspector-General has identified inherent difficulties associated with the nature and associated costs of valuations.

Given these issues, the Inspector-General has made nine recommendations to the ATO aimed at taking a more practical and transparent approach to assessing taxpayer valuations and developing administrative safe harbours.

The Government welcomes these recommendations, including the ATO’s commitment to develop a standard template for instructing valuers, which contribute to cutting red tape and reducing compliance costs for taxpayers.

The Inspector-General has also made three recommendations for the Government’s consideration, which include:

• consideration of ways to limit the need for valuations when developing tax law, including shortcuts or safe harbors as an alternative to full valuations;
• consultation on ways to reduce reliance on valuations to access the small business capital gains tax concessions; and
• tapering the eligibility criteria for tax concessions.

The Government will give full consideration to these recommendations, noting that the upcoming Tax White Paper will be an opportunity to provide a longer-term, considered approach to tax reform.

The Government thanks the Inspector-General and his team for their efforts in producing this report, which is available at www.igt.gov.au.