Big Picture Vision of Australian Tax and Compliance

On 1 September 2021, ATO Second Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn delivered the 2021 Pearcey Oration titled "Digital Transformation: Australia as a World Leader" via Zoom. 

Jeremy's paper explored five key themes in the context of digitisation and data. A full transcript is available here and there is also a recording available on YouTube. 

About the Pearcey Foundation
The Pearcey Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded in 1998 in memory of a great Australian ICT pioneer Dr Trevor Pearcey. DSPANZ President, Simon Foster, is the Honorary Treasurer and Past NSW Chair. 

The Five Themes

The tax return as a data set:
How the ATO is designing the tax and super system around verifiable data, to save taxpayers time and minimise inadvertent errors.

Sharing insights from the COVID response:
The importance of having high-quality systems and data sets in place for more than one purpose. 

The ethical use of data:
ATO's commitment to living up to the high standards the community places on them to manage their vast data holdings.

Looking into the future of tax administration: 
How the ATO is harnessing advancements in digitisation and data to gain better insights into their own effectiveness, and deliver services to clients within their natural systems e.g. STP2, equivalents of UK MTD/SSF, the future role of accountants and bookkeepers, the role of Digital Service Providers. 

Taking a whole-of-government approach to the provision of services to the community: 
The ATO's role in major initiatives that make it easier, cheaper and safer to operate in Australia. 

The Pearcey Oration was the first time that the Second Commissioner has publicly pulled together all of the strands that many of us know as the OECD Tax Administration 3.0 roadmap "Tax Just Happens". This presentation is directly connected to this consistent, global roadmap for the future of Tax and Compliance.