Statement of Expectations and Results
The Statement of Expectations framework forms part of the Victorian Government’s program to reduce red tape by promoting greater efficiency and effectiveness in administering and enforcing regulation.
On 28 June 2018, the State Revenue Office received the Statement of Expectations setting out the government’s targets to be met by 30 June 2019. We committed to achieving these targets.
Amend acknowledgement letters where a State Revenue Office action is being taken to ensure an expected timeframe is provided.
An audit of key acknowledgement correspondence (letters and emails) was completed to ensure expected time frames were included in relevant correspondence. Time frames already specified within correspondence were reviewed and confirmed and where time frames were not, but could be, included they were added. For example, time frames were added to correspondence relating to processing of unclaimed money claims, answering of Duties Online enquiries, land tax refund application processing, and payment of the First Home Owner Grant. Correspondence will continue to be reviewed as it is created to ensure that, where relevant, appropriate time frames are provided to assist customers.
Develop and launch a land tax portal where customers will be able to, among other things, update their details, track outstanding liabilities, request amendments and lodge objections.
A beta release of My Land Tax online portal allowing land tax customers to update their details and request and track amendments to their assessments was released to selected customers in June 2019. Through this beta release the State Revenue Office was able to pilot the new services with customers in a controlled environment ahead of the portal's formal public release. The service was publicly released in September 2019. The public release includes additional capabilities including allowing customers to view and download copies of their Land Tax assessment notices and link to the various payment options including the AutoPay system which allows customers to create an instalment payment plan.
Reassess work practices to ensure 80% or more of private rulings are determined within 80 days (instead of the current 90 days).
This target has been met. The result was 84% with 1550 private rulings completed, of which 1312 were determined within 80 days.
More specifically, the Technical Advice and Review Branch full year result was 87% of private rulings determined within 80 days, while the smaller Landholder Acquisition Branch result was 67%.
In order to achieve this outcome, one of the strategies involved personal development progression plans for the two areas being updated to reflect the new 80-day target, and staff performance monitored.
Introduce a system change to assist taxpayers to comply with their tax obligations by recording the reasons for non-compliance to inform the structuring of more effective customer education campaigns.
Based on findings by the investigations area, the top three top reasons given for non-compliance were:
- Ignorance of the law
- Administrative error by taxpayer/representative
- Failure to keep up with legislative changes
There are variances by revenue line, amounts detected and number of investigated cases which needs to be aligned with education and training initiatives to be delivered by the Staff Development and Customer Education Branch.