Andrew Leigh

JOB CUTS AT THE TAX OFFICE LEAD TO A SURGE IN COMPLAINTS

Since coming to office, the Abbott-Turnbull Government has cut more than 3300 jobs from the Australian Taxation Office, while at the same time complaints about the Agency have risen by more than 40 percent. 

The number of staff cut from the tax office by the Abbott-Turnbull Government has been revealed in the government's answer to Labor’s question on notice. Since July 2014, the tax office has lost 3,347 employees to the Abbott-Turnbull axe. 

In the 2013-14 tax year – just before the job cuts began –­ there were 23,900 complaints to the tax office. In 2015-16, that figure rose to 34,323 complaints – an increase of 44 percent.

These figures do not include the tidal wave of complaints that followed this month's multi-day outage of www.ato.gov.au.

Job cuts at the tax office are making life harder for Australians who just want to pay their taxes and get on with their work.

While it's been cutting jobs at the tax office, the Turnbull Government has been increasing personal staff for ministers, paying for ghost flights by VIP planes and wasting money on discredited consultants’ reports.

No wonder complaints are rising - and not just to the tax office.

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FRIDAY, 30 DECEMBER 2016