Slipping through the cracks: deficiencies in the Australian Taxation Office's application of its compliance model

Since the late 1990s, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been regulating the Australian tax system using the compliance model that advocates for regulation in response to a taxpayer's compliance behaviour, stance or attitude and escalates the severity of its response as the taxpayer becomes more disengaged. This model assumes that taxpayers have the capacity to comply, but many may slip through the cracks in the tax system and have difficulty complying for reasons beyond their control. As a result, the ATO's application of the compliance model may lead to these taxpayers being unjustly regarded as seriously noncompliant resulting in them being unjustly met with the full force of the law. This article illustrates situations where taxpayers have slipped through the cracks using autoethnographic methods to compare the ATO's treatment of them against the principles of the compliance model to recommend changes in ATO practice.