Introduction

The Australian Taxation Office

1. The Australian Taxation Office (Tax Office) is the Australian Government's principal revenue collection agency. The role of the Tax Office is to manage and shape taxation, excise and superannuation administrative systems that fund services for Australians, giving effect to social and economic policy.¹ In 2008–09, net cash collections from taxpayers by the Tax Office totalled $264.5 billion.² The operating expenditure of the Tax Office was $3.025 billion.³ As at 30 June 2009, the Tax Office employed 22 429 employees.⁴

2. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems have a key role in the administration of Australia's taxation system. These include systems to facilitate the registration, lodgement and issuance of taxation assessments, and as required, compliance reviews and audits.

The Tax Office's strategic direction

3. The Tax Office stated in its Strategic Statement 2006–10 that it will work with the community in the fair administration and effective management of the tax and superannuation systems to add value to the nation. The Tax Office aims to optimise voluntary compliance with tax law in a way that builds community confidence. To achieve these objectives the Tax Office has strategies to:

• help taxpayers and their agents understand their rights and obligations;
• make it as easy as possible for people to comply with the law;
• ensure effective strategies are in place to deter, detect and deal with non-compliance; and
• develop and support the capability of Tax Office staff and of others in the system.⁵

4. The Tax Office's strategic direction has evolved to guide the development of improved administrative systems and thus help all participants in Australia's taxation system improve compliance with their taxation responsibilities. To achieve this, the objectives of the Tax Office were to make compliance as easy as possible and to tailor compliance activities to address specific compliance risks. This required the implementation of fully integrated systems which covered all aspects of the Tax Office's activities.

The Change Program

5. The Easier Cheaper More Personalised Change Program (Change Program) was the key platform for the Tax Office's implementation of its strategic goal of developing a cost effective and integrated system of tax administration. This was to be achieved through integration of core procedural and processing systems which would support the four Tax Office-wide Sub-Plans.⁶

6. Some of the key reasons for the Tax Office making the significant investment in the Change Program, and which underpinned the core objectives outlined in the original business case, included an intention to:

• allow the Tax Office to function as one integrated entity, able to address all relevant aspects of taxpayer and tax professional experience of tax administration in a holistic and integrated manner;
• develop an ability to adopt, as efficiently and effectively as possible, better administrative practices and technological facilities in a rapidly changing environment;
• achieve productivity improvements in an environment of continuing fiscal constraint;
• continue to improve community compliance;
• reduce risks to revenue; and
• provide increased confidence in the integrity of Australia's taxation system.⁷

7. The Tax Office estimates that the cost of Releases 1 and 2 of the Change Program (the majority of the Client Contact – Work Management – Case Management system (CWC) was implemented in Releases 1 and 2 with a small part in Release 3), was $282 million, or about 63 per cent of the proposed total Change Program cost of $445 million in the approved business case. Following additional funding to accommodate expansions in scope requested by the government, the estimated total cost of the Change Program as at 30 June 2010 is some $824 million. The Change Program had cost approximately $780 million as at 31 December 2009.

8. The approved Change Program business case anticipated an implementation timeframe of four years, of which delivery of Releases 1 and 2 constituted approximately six and 15 months respectively. The actual implementation dates for Releases 1 and 2 were April 2006 (10 months later than originally planned) and March 2007 (six months later than originally planned) respectively.

The Client Contact - Work Management - Case Management System (CWC)

9. The Change Program included the implementation of the CWC. The CWC is an enterprise level system used to manage cases and work items, as well as manage client relationship interactions arising from telephone calls and correspondence. The CWC is supported by organisationally consistent procedures and processes.

10. The Tax Office purchased a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software system, Siebel, to provide the necessary core CWC functionality. COTS software generally refers to ready-made and operating ICT systems which can be implemented relatively quickly. COTS software provides an alternative to in-house development and will usually reduce the overall technical risks of implementation as well as system development and maintenance costs. However, the benefits of using COTS solutions can be reduced if the software requires extensive integration with other systems.

11. The CWC and the related Integrated Core Processing (ICP)⁸ system, which is being progressively implemented, will be the main systems used by Tax Office staff in the conduct of their work. These systems depend on other enabling systems that include document and content management, reporting and analytics, data matching, and human resources.

12. There are three primary functional areas across the Tax Office that use the CWC functionality and supporting enterprise wide processes. These are Active Compliance, Interpretive Advice and Debt.

Audit objective and scope

13. The objective of the audit was to assess the implementation of the Australian Taxation Office's Client Contact – Work Management – Case Management system (CWC). The audit examined four key areas that included:

• progress of the CWC against the endorsed Change Program business case;
• improvements to the productivity and efficiency of tax administration as a result of the implementation of the CWC;
• improvements to client experiences when dealing with the Tax Office as a result of the implementation of the CWC; and
• effects of the CWC implementation, including additional benefits achievable beyond its current capacity to further improve tax administration.

14. The audit examined the impact of the CWC on the broader Tax Office ICT environment. Fieldwork was conducted in a number of Tax Office compliance, operations and Call Centre areas between June and November 2009. The use of the CWC in the functional areas of Interpretive Advice and Debt was not examined as the CWC in these areas had not yet been fully implemented to a business-as-usual state. The implementation of the related ICP system (primarily Release 3 of the original Change Program project plan) was the subject of a separate ANAO review in Report No 8 of 2009-10, The Australian Tax Office's Implementation of the Change Program: a strategic overview.

Overall conclusion

15. The implementation of the CWC has improved and transformed key aspects of Tax Office activity that support tax administration. The Integrated CWC system has provided a new approach to managing internal administration and communication arrangements with taxpayers, tax professionals and the community. The Tax Office now manages correspondence and work resulting from telephone calls on a national, enterprise-wide basis, rather than in a fragmented regional way.

16. The CWC has also provided a single platform for the Tax Office to manage active compliance casework on an enterprise-wide basis. This single platform has replaced approximately 180 case management systems that were previously operational across the Tax Office.

17. The Tax Office's implementation of the CWC has been generally successful when assessed against the original intent of the project, having achieved six of the eight objectives of the Change Program business case. The remaining objectives are expected to be achieved once the ICP component of the overall Change Program has full functionality across the Tax Office.

18. The CWC has contributed to improvements to the productivity, integrity and efficiency of tax administration, and also to client experiences by reducing the number of disparate systems, business processes and business area-centric resources. The Tax Office has also realised further benefits from the CWC system, in addition to those outlined in the original business case.

19. The Tax Office has undertaken surveys to track whether clients have found interaction with the Tax Office to be easier, cheaper and more personalised following the CWC implementation. Not all changes in client experiences can be attributed to the CWC, as taxpayer attitudes are influenced by factors outside the control of the Tax Office and by other Tax Office initiatives. Overall these surveys indicated that clients were now finding it easier to deal with the Tax Office and the CWC underpins most interactions that clients have with the Tax Office.

20. The Tax Office's appreciation of the opportunities to further enhance the CWC is continuing to evolve as additional components of the Change Program are implemented. Therefore the Tax Office can continue to improve its use of the CWC and its associated processes to gain additional benefits and improvements.

21. It is also important that the Tax Office continues to explore scope for further gains to be made in the area of casework, reflecting the procedural differences between ‘high-volume,' as distinct from ‘complex' casework.

22. The ANAO made three recommendations directed towards achieving further benefits from the CWC implementation.

Key findings by chapter

Progress against the approved business case (Chapter 2)

23. In December 2004 the Tax Office Executive endorsed the Change Program business case which incorporated the CWC as a core component of the overall project. The approved business case defined a set of ‘outcome statements' and ‘sub outcome statements' against which the success of implementation of the CWC and the other components of the Change Program would be measured. To assess the Tax Office's CWC implementation progress, the ANAO examined outcomes from the implementation of the CWC against the outcome and sub outcome statements in the Change Program. The implementation of the CWC has achieved six of the eight objectives of the overall Change Program business case. Some of the outstanding objectives will only be met once the ICP component of the Change Program, which interfaces with the CWC, has full functionality across the Tax Office.

24. The CWC has the potential to further improve staff productivity, reduce staff training time and allow for the faster movement of work between areas at a lower cost. Furthermore the CWC provides a suitable system for an effective active compliance and advice capability and improved organisation-wide management of work. The introduction of the Consolidated Client View (CCV) has allowed the Tax Office to improve client services by providing Tax Office staff with a single source of client information.

25. The CWC is used across a number of business lines which highlights the importance of a strategic management approach. A central oversight body could provide co-ordinated guidance in the further development of the system.

26. The Tax Office currently uses a range of work effort costing systems but these have limitations and do not apply a standard methodology to determine input parameters. The absence of a standard methodology for recording the cost of Tax Office effort, at the level of individual cases, may impede the Tax Office's ability to achieve further gains to productivity and efficiency. One potential benefit of the CWC is the introduction of a single Tax Office approach to costing work effort, primarily through the measurement of the time used to create an output. Organisation-wide processes and procedures for managing all compliance work could now facilitate a more structured comparison of work effort across similar processing units. Recommendation 1 (paragraph 2.31) addresses this issue.

Using the CWC for Client Contact and Work Management (Chapter 3)

27. The business case for the CWC elements of the Change Program identified the need for improvements in client contact and work management.

28. The implementation of the CWC has changed the way customer service representatives (CSR) and other Tax Office staff interact with clients. Previously staff were required to refer to several computer systems to obtain enough information to verify a caller's identity, resulting in time-consuming processes for even basic client interactions. Staff only had access to specific items of information on the taxpayer. This meant that advice and information given to the taxpayer was general and could not be tailored to the individual taxpayer's circumstances.

29. To gauge the effect the CWC has had on staff interactions with clients, the Tax Office undertakes a range of surveys using survey questions to measure perceptions and evaluate client experiences. These surveys were designed to assess whether clients found interaction with the Tax Office to be easier, cheaper and more personalised following the implementation. Overall, these surveys indicated that clients were finding it easier to deal with the Tax Office than previously. Not all improvements in client experience can be attributed to the CWC, as taxpayer attitudes will be influenced by other initiatives as well as by factors outside of the control of the Tax Office.

30. In respect to work management activities, the CWC has streamlined the way in which the Tax Office receives and actions correspondence. Previously the Tax Office used labour-intensive, paper-based systems. The use of the CWC has transformed the process into a multi-channel electronic work management system, which allocates work and correspondence to appropriately skilled teams with team members obtaining their work through an electronic in-tray. The Tax Office also introduced consistent work processes for correspondence across the Tax Office. In addition, the use of a central data warehouse for taxpayer information removes the need for different business lines to request the same information from taxpayers.

31. There are opportunities for the Tax Office to further strengthen the use of the CWC within the client relationship and work management areas. These opportunities include potential productivity and efficiency improvements from automation in the allocation of work, especially where risk levels are considered to be low.

Using the CWC for Case Management (Chapter 4)

32. The business case for the CWC elements of the Change Program identified the need for improvements in compliance case management .

33. Benefits from the CWC for case management include the introduction of enterprise-wide processes for, and increasing the transparency of, all casework. The CWC also facilitates the movement of casework to areas of the Tax Office where staff may be underutilised for a specific period or to better manage priorities. Management can monitor work progress and workloads across teams with a view to moving casework to areas of the office where staff have greater capacity, taking advantage of common enterprise-wide processes and procedures. As a result, the Tax Office is better able to use its work force to meet the commitments outlined each year in the Compliance Program.

34. However, there is scope to further improve the use made of the CWC in compliance casework. There are several ICT issues which are common across the active compliance capability including limitations within the search functionality of the CWC and the requirement for case officers to re-enter the same data at several stages during a case. These could be addressed, variously, by a planned upgrade to the CWC, some system reconfigurations, redesign of business practices and procedures to better support the CWC, and refinements to staff training. Recommendation 2 (paragraph 4.37) addresses improvements that could be made in relation to this issue.

35. One use of the CWC is to collect useful reference data, identified in casework, about compliance risks and issues to tax administration. The ANAO observed that the compliance risk model was not applied consistently in the set up of risks and issues in the CWC. The compliance risk model was designed to operate by identifying risks on a whole of tax administration basis that would then facilitate a consistent approach to those risks across all business lines within the Tax Office. Instead, each business line individually developed a risks and issues profile based on identified risks associated with its work in its particular market segment. This resulted in a business line-specific focus on risks resulting in granular reference data⁹ being developed and implemented. The Tax Office is currently undertaking various measures to address this bottom-up rather than top-down approach to identifying compliance risks.

36. The Tax Office would also benefit from a review of ‘scheduled case cycle time', which measures the amount of time to be spent on a case. This performance measure is used for planning workloads into the future. A reduction in the scheduled cycle time for many cases could be achieved because of the centralisation of Tax Office information holdings in a data warehouse which facilitates greater accessibility to client data. Scheduled case cycle time currently does not recognise the elapsed time waiting for further information from taxpayers before a case can be progressed. The manner in which cycle times are currently measured discourages case officers from recording additional risks that may be identified as the additional time that would be needed to address and properly record any newly identified risks is not recognised. Recommendation 3 (paragraph 4.51) addresses this issue.

Footnotes

1. Australian Taxation Office, Australian Taxation Office Annual Report 2008-09, Canberra, 2009, p. iii.

2. ibid., p. 4.

3. ibid., p. 5.

4. ibid., p.iii.

5. Australian Taxation Office, Australian Taxation Office Strategic Statement 2006-10, Canberra, 2006, p. 3.

6. Until 2009 the Change Program and ICT Sub Plans were separate. They are now part of the Enterprise Solutions and Technology Sub Plan.

7. Australian National Audit Office, Audit Report No. 08 2009-10 The Australian Taxation Office's Implementation of the Change Program: a strategic overview, Canberra, 2009, p. 48.

8. The ICP currently provides a baseline functionality for the Tax Office–wide processing requirement. Additional functionality is being added as a part of Release 3. The ICP is tightly coupled with the CWC as part of the Tax Office's integrated suite introduced by the Change Program.

9. Risk and issues are deemed as reference data, which is data that is used to configure the CWC which inform the case selection process in future.