Preparing For Battle

Published on 10 Mar 2011 | Took place at InterContinental Adelaide, Adelaide, SA

The Australian Taxation Office has significantly increased its audit activity in recent years across a wide range of areas and industries. As a consequence, Tax Professionals now work in an environment requiring greater adherence to tax risk management practices and also need greater awareness of the best practices and protocols in dealing with the ATO on behalf of their clients when these situations arise. This seminar will review the spectrum of issues relevant to successfully dealing with the ATO on audit. It will focus on the defensive steps that might be taken to avoid and minimise your exposure to a dispute. It will also focus on situations where “the gloves come off” and your client is unavoidably thrust into a fully fledged dispute with the ATO in either the Administrative Appeals Tribunal or the Federal Court.

This event covered the following:

• current position with Part IVA and advising on anti-avoidance provisions generally
• documenting transactions which may be subject to audit
• utilising client legal privilege/accountant’s concession
• strategies with opinions, reasonably arguable position papers and private rulings
• advance preparation for possible audit/dispute
• tax risk management issues for boards
• overview of audit programs and questionnaires
• audit types and procedures
• audit and questionnaire strategies
• exchange and disclosure of information procedures
• resolving potential disputes during the audit and questionnaire stage.