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Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Page: 7098

Australian Taxation Office

(Question No. 987)

Senator Cormann asked the Minister representing the Treasurer, upon notice, on 18 August 2011:

(1) What was the total expenditure of the Australian Taxation Office for the 2010-11 financial year in relation to:

(a) advertising;

(b) air travel within Australia in business class;

(c) air travel within Australia in economy class;

(d) air travel within Australia by charter flight;

(e) air travel outside Australia in first class;

(f) air travel outside Australia in business class;

(g) air travel outside Australia in economy class;

(h) air travel outside Australia by charter flight;

(i) hospitality and entertainment;

(j) information and communications technology (ICT) costs generally;

(k) ICT costs to external providers;

(l) external consultants generally;

(m) external accounting services;

(n) external auditing services;

(o) external legal services; and

(p) memberships or grants paid to affiliate organisations.

(2) In relation to each of the items referred to in question 1, what is the budgeted total expenditure for the 2011-12 financial year.

Senator Wong: The Treasurer has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) incurred the following expenditure in 2010-11:

(a) Advertising - general non-staff related advertising was $1.354 million or 0.04% of the 2010-11 budget. Included in this amount is expenditure related to specific campaigns undertaken over 2010-11 to inform the community or target audiences about their rights entitlements or obligations. The ATO Annual Report includes detailed information on advertising undertaken by the ATO for a broad range of activities including direct mail, media placement and market research.

(b) and (c) The ATO collected $253.2 billion in 2009-10 and employs 22,189 ongoing staff and 2,820 temporary/non-ongoing staff in 61 sites including 35 major sites, in metropolitan and regional areas all around Australia. About 87% of ATO staff are located outside Canberra. The ATO's operating expenditure budget in 2010-11 was $3,230 million. Total expenditure on air travel in 2010-11 was $20.579 million which represents 0.65% of the total budget and approximately $927 per ongoing staff member. An indicative breakdown between business class and economy class travel is provided below, based on analysis of the top twenty routes travelled in 2010-11:

- Air travel within Australia in business class - $7.758 million or 0.2% of the 2010-11 budget

- Air travel within Australia in economy class - $12.821 million or 0.4% of the 2010-11 budget.

(d) Air travel within Australia by charter flight - Nil

(e) Air travel outside Australia in first class - $0.029 million or 0.001% of the 2010-11 budget.

(f) Air travel outside Australia in business class - $0.461 million or 0.014% of the 2010-11 budget.

(g) Air travel outside Australia in economy class - $0.034 million or 0.001% of the 2010-11 budget.

(h) Air travel outside Australia by charter flight - Nil.

(i) Hospitality and entertainment - $0.089 million or 0.003% of the 2010-11 budget This expenditure includes light refreshments provided to a wide range of consultative and stakeholder groups and forums as well as gifts for guest speakers and international delegations visiting the ATO and official dinners.

(j) Total operating Information and communications technology (ICT) budget is $624 million or 19.3% of the 2010-11 budget. In addition, the ATO's 2010-11 ICT related capital expenditure was $76.0 million comprising $40.4 million for internally developed software, $20.5 million for IT infrastructure and $15.1 million for purchased software.

(k) ICT costs to external providers - $386.9 million or 12% of the 2010-11 budget. ICT services supplied by external providers include the ATO's desktop computers and other office machines, all ICT service support services including the IT help desk, all phone services including call centre infrastructure, all mainframe and midrange services, data warehouse and storage services.

(l) External consultants generally - $9.286 million or 0.287% of the 2010-11 budget.

(m) External accounting services - $0.144 million or 0.004% of the 2010-11 budget.

(n) External auditing services - the ATO does not pay for external auditing services. External audit services are provided to the ATO by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO). While there is a charge for this service the charge is classified as 'Resource received free of charge'. In 2010-11 this charge was $3.578 million.

(o) External legal services - $54.083 million or 1.674% of the 2010-11 budget. The ATO's expenditure on external legal services is reported in its Annual Report.

(p) Memberships or grants paid to affiliate organisations - the ATO generally does not pay for staff memberships. The ATO contributed $178,338 to the OECD Forum on Tax Administration in 2010-11.

(2) The ATO's internal budget for 2011-12 does not provide budget information at the requested level of detail for the majority of the areas listed in Question 1. However, 2011-12 budget information is provided for the following categories:

(b) - (h) The ATO does not budget separately for airfares. The ATO's total travel budget for 2011-12 is $45 million or 1.4% of the 2011-12 budget. The travel budget includes the cost of all airfares, accommodation, motor vehicle fleet costs as well as other travel related expenses including taxi fares.

(j) Total operating ICT budget is $628.6 million or 19.1% of the 2011-12 budget. The ATO's total ICT related capital budget for 2011-12 is $97.7 million.

(k) ICT costs to external providers - $387.5 million or 11.7% of the 2011-12 budget.

(l) External consultants generally - the current 2011-12 budget is $10.240 million or 0.31% of the 2011-12 budget.

(n) External auditing services - the ATO does not pay for external auditing services. External audit services are provided to the ATO by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO). While there is a charge for this service the charge is classified as 'Resource received free of charge'. The 2011-12 budget for this charge is $3.580 million or 0.11% of the 2011-12 budget.

(o) External legal services - The ATO's total legal services budget for 2011-12 which includes external legal services is $53.9 million or 1.6% of the 2011-12 budget.

The budget amounts above are initial budget amounts for 2011-12 and are subject to change.

All expenditure and budget amounts provided above are ATO only and exclude the Australian Valuation Office (AVO).

All figures quoted in this response are GST exclusive.