Complaints to the Australian Tax Office over compromised accounts have soared. Photo: Wavebreakmedia.
Between 2020–21 and 2023–24, the Australian Taxation Office received a whopping 935 per cent increase in complaints about accounts and personal information being compromised.
Data breaches from ransomware attacks, particularly by foreign actors (namely in Russia and China), account for the bulk of the spike in complaints.
High-profile cyber attacks on some of Australia’s biggest entities had some flow-on impacts on the ATO and the number of complaints about compromised accounts it received.
Additionally, 56.5 per cent of complaints across all business lines between 2020–21 and 2023–24 were related to timeliness, with many complainants not being informed of extended complaint due dates.
The average time to answer inbound complaint calls in 2023–24, however, was 1 minute and 34 seconds, against its service standard of 15 minutes or less.
The figures have just been released by the Australian National Audit Office, which undertook an audit of how the ATO manages its complaints.
The audit found the ATO to be mostly doing a decent job in its handling of complaints, but it didn’t always know the underlying causes.
“The ATO’s management of complaints is largely effective,” the report states.
“Effectiveness would be improved if the ATO’s analysis of its complaints data also sought to identify the underlying causes of complaints and used this information to improve business processes and complaint handling … The complaints process is accessible through multiple channels, and complaints are triaged to allocate complaints to resolvers with appropriate experience.
“The ATO seeks to resolve complaints at first contact. The proportion of complaints resolved at first contact has declined over the last four financial years.
“The ATO uses timeliness of complaint handling as its indicator for efficiency. The process is reliant on complainant feedback to improve accessibility.”
Communication issues were detected regarding how complainants are informed of the progress of their complaints.
“Regular ongoing contact was not consistently maintained with complainants in 2022–23 and 2023–24, and some complainants were not advised of their review rights when a complaint was closed,” the report states.
“The ATO did not have a discussion with complainants before extending due dates in the majority of complaint cases.
“The extended due dates exceed the ATO’s service commitment to resolve complaints within 15 business days.”
The audit found that the ATO has also not consistently communicated taxpayer review rights to the complainant.
The ATO categorises the complaints it receives by the term ‘product’.
Income tax has the highest number of complaint issues, increasing in volume from 4583 complaints in 2020–21 to 15,915 in 2023–24.
Superannuation and client records were the next top three most common complaint issues every year during this period, except in 2023–24 as Lodge and Pay10 complaints surpassed Superannuation.
The Auditor-General made a number of recommendations to the ATO, including that it analyses the root causes of complaints, particularly where there has been a significant increase in volumes.
The ANAO also recommends the ATO always conducts and documents any discussion with complainants before extending complaint due dates.
And it should also communicate and document that review rights have been discussed with the complainant in accordance with its own guidance.
The ATO has responded to the audit report, welcoming the ANAO’s finding that it is largely effective in managing complaints.
The ATO also agreed with all recommendations in the report (four in total).
“Whilst complaints represent a very small portion of our interactions with taxpayers, we understand the importance of complaints in helping us to continue to improve their experience…,” the response said.
“Implementation of the recommendations and opportunities for improvement identified by the ANAO will help us further strengthen our complaints processes, and ensure we continue to effectively meet our commitments to taxpayers and the Australian Government.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Riotact.
