The plan, proposed by Australia’s counterparts in the UK and US, is said to provide more reliable estimates of revenue.

Inspector-General of Taxation Ali Noroozi told parliament’s standing committee on tax and revenue it is “actively considering” the benefits of such a program, but that it would not be popular with taxpayers.

“If they are perfectly compliant, then they are not going to appreciate somebody knocking on their doors and wanting to go through everything,” Ali says.

He conceded the program could help minimise the “tax gap” between the amount of tax payable by companies and individuals and the sum of tax actually collected.

Deputy Inspector-General of Taxation Andrew McLoughlin told the committee the Tax Office might consider compensating those picked for audits who were found to be compliant.

“Obviously you do not want people feeling as though they are being shaken down when they are not doing anything wrong whatsoever,” he said.

The GST tax gap is estimated to be $3.1 billion.

Tax products and services manager at Taxpayers Australia, Lisa Greig says, “Currently, tax reviews can be triggered based on benchmark data abnormalities or specific tax disclosures. Even then taxpayers can still be compliant. For example, any taxpayer claiming a small business CGT exemption is more likely than not get a ‘please explain’ letter from the Tax Office. It is just the norm.

However, if a taxpayer has a squeaky clean business and operates year on year without any abnormal activity and gets a review letter, then, of course they are going to be miffed. The taxpayer should have the right to a reimbursement claim for any outgoings due to the Tax Office’s fishing expedition.”

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