SQL queries run for the Inspector-General of Taxation's report on penalties

Patrick Conheady made this Freedom of Information request to Australian Taxation Office

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

The request was refused by Australian Taxation Office.

Patrick Conheady

Dear Australian Taxation Office,

Please provide the SQL queries (or equivalent) used to extract statistics and other data for the use of the Inspector-General of Taxation in his 2014 review of the ATO's administration of penalties.

Yours faithfully,

-Pat.

Zhu, Katy, Australian Taxation Office

Dear Patrick

Thank you for your email.

There are a few matters I would like to clarify and discuss with you regarding your FOI request below. Can you please contact me on the number below?

Kind regards

Katy Zhu
Lawyer
General Counsel, ATO Corporate
Australian Taxation Office
P 03 8632 5064

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Patrick Conheady

Dear Katy,

Thankyou for your time on the phone today. You asked for clarification of the scope of the request, and for the request to be reframed in terms of 'documents'.

I would like to amend my request to request documents containing the SQL queries (or equivalent) used to extract statistics and other data for the use of the Inspector-General of
Taxation in his 2014 review of the ATO's administration of penalties.

To clarify the scope of the request, I am referring to the data published by the Inspector-General, sourced from the ATO, in the tables listed in the appendix to this email.

The report can be viewed online at: http://igt.gov.au/files/2014/11/administ...

Yours sincerely,

-Pat.

APPENDIX - LIST OF TABLES IN IGT REPORT

Table 3 'Amount and percentage of unsustained penalties by
financial year',
Table 4 'Proportion of primary tax and penalties reduced during
review activities by financial year'
Table 5 'Outcomes for penalty-only objections for the 1 July 2012
to 31 March 2013 period, by business line'
Table 6 'Total penalties raised by market segment'
Table 7 'Total penalties raised by revenue product'
Table 8 'Total penalties raised by ATO business line'
Table 9 'Selected penalties raised by penalty type'
Table 10 'Reasons for adjusted penalty only objection decisions,
from 1 July
2012 to 31 March 2013, by business line'
Table 11 'Reasons for penalty only objection decisions, from 1 July
2012 to 31 March 2013, by business line'
Table 15 'Number of active compliance activities and amounts of
primary tax
liabilities, penalties and interest raised from 1 July 2010 to 30
June 2013'
Table 16 'Total tax liabilities and penalties raised from 1 July
2010 to October 2012'
Table 17 'ATO’s ICP system data on penalties raised by penalty type
from 1 July 2011 to 30 April 2012'
Table 19 'Percentage of primary tax liabilities and penalties
reduced on review, by financial year'
Table 20 'Percentage of primary tax and penalty allowed after
objections, by financial year'
Table 21 'Percentage of primary tax and penalty allowed after
settlement, by financial year'
Table 22 'Percentage of primary tax and penalty allowed after
litigation, by financial year'
Table 23 'Total objections, from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013 by
business line'
Table 24 'Objection cases with penalty amounts, from 1 July 2012 to
31 March 2013 by business line'
Table 25 'Penalty-only objections from 1 July 2012 to 31 March 2013
by business line'
Table 26 'Outcomes for penalty-only objections, from 1 July 2012 to
31 March 2013 by business line'
Table 27 'Total amount of pre and post settlement primary tax and
penalties, from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013 by business line'
Table 28 'Total amount of pre and post settlement primary tax and
penalties, from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012 by business line'
Table 29 'Total amount of pre and post settlement primary tax and
penalties, from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011 by business line'
Table 30 'Total amount of pre and post litigation primary tax
liabilities and
penalties from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2013 by business line (cases
finalised at hearing)'
Table 31 'Total amount of pre and post litigation primary tax and
penalties from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2013 by business line (cases
finalised prior to hearing)'
Table 32 'Number of appeal cases and amounts of penalty disputed
and finalised from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2013 by outcome'

Zhu, Katy, Australian Taxation Office

Dear Patrick

Thank you for your FOI request. We will consider your request and respond as soon as possible. FOI requests are required to be processed within 30 days from the date we receive an application. While we aim to achieve this timeframe, certain requests that are large or involve complex issues may take longer. If this is the case we will contact you to discuss when the material can be made available. Further, unless your request is for personal information, charges may apply depending on the size and complexity of your case. We will notify you if there are charges and what those charges will be. We will obtain your consent to any additional charges before processing the request.

Regards,

Katy Zhu
Lawyer
General Counsel, ATO Corporate
Australian Taxation Office
P 03 8632 5064

Connect with us

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Zhu, Katy, Australian Taxation Office

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Dear Mr Conheady
 
Thank you for our telephone conversation yesterday.
 
As I mentioned, the ATO has accepted the full transfer of the FOI request
you sent to the Inspector- General of Taxation (IGT) dated 27 December
2015. The ATO will now be processing both of your FOI requests dated 27
December.
 
Further to our conversation, we discussed and agreed on an altered scope
for both of the FOI requests (27 December 2015), as follows:

* FOI Request 1 (SQL Queries): we agreed that the scope is reduced to
only the SQL queries used in relation to the IGT's 2014 review of the
ATO's administration of penalties.
* FOI Request 2 (Emails and communications): we agreed that the scope is
reduced to only the statistics and other tabulated data that the ATO
provided to the IGT in relation to the IGT's 2014 review of the ATO's
administration of penalties.

 
If you wish to make any further changes or clarifications to the
re-negotiated scope, please feel free to contact me.
 
Finally, as discussed, can you please confirm by reply to a 30 day
extension, pursuant to section 15AA of the FOI Act, for both of the FOI
requests. The new due date will be 25 February 2016. Of course, I will
endeavour to provide the decisions to your requests sooner than that.
 

Katy Zhu
Lawyer
General Counsel, ATO Corporate
Australian Taxation Office
P 03 8632 5064
Connect with us

 
 

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Patrick Conheady

Dear Katy,

Thankyou for your time on the phone and for your email.

I confirm I agree to an extension to 25 February 2016.

Yours sincerely,

-Pat.

Zhu, Katy, Australian Taxation Office

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Hi Patrick
 
Thank you for your time on the telephone. Further to our conversation on
27 January 2016 regarding the scope of your FOI requests, can you please
confirm by reply the modification of scope as follows:

* FOI Request 1 (SQL Queries): documents which show 1) the SQL queries
relevant to the 2012-2013 objection data and was used for the purposes
of the IGT’s 2014 review of the ATO’s administration of penalty; and
2) the SQL queries relevant to the imposition of penalties for years
2009-2012 and was used for the purposes of the IGT’s 2014 review of
the ATO’s administration of penalty.
* FOI request 2(emails and communications): summary/aggregated
statistics and data the ATO provided to the IGT, along with
corresponding emails sent from the ATO to the IGT for the purposes of
the IGT’s 2014 review of the ATO’s administration of penalty .

 
Kind regards
 
 

Katy Zhu
Lawyer
General Counsel, ATO Corporate
Australian Taxation Office
P 03 8632 5064
Connect with us

 
 
 
_____________________________________________

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Patrick Conheady

Dear Katy,

Thankyou for your email and phone call.

I confirm the modification of scope in your email.

Yours sincerely,

-Pat.

Zhu, Katy, Australian Taxation Office

2 Attachments

Dear Patrick

 

Please find attached the decision to your request for documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 dated 27 December 2015.

 

Kind regards

 

 

   
Katy Zhu

Lawyer

General Counsel, ATO Corporate

Australian Taxation Office
P 03 8632 5064

[1]cid:image007.png@01D0872C.6FBBE500

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Patrick Conheady

Dear Katy,

Thanks for your letter.

Could you please send me the original Word version of your decision letter, so that I can copy-paste text from it?

Yours sincerely,

-Pat.

Patrick Conheady left an annotation ()

The ATO refused the request under section 47E(d) on the basis that releasing SQL queries would prejudice the security of the ATO's IT systems.

To quote from the printed, scanned PDF letter:
"SQL queries contain information about ATO's information systems (information related to the content, location and storage of sensitive information), which, if released, could reasonably be expected to increase the risk of compromise to ATO information systems.

The ATO's information technology systems are critical to the proper and efficient delivery of ATO functions, and are subject to a large number of penetration attempts every year. A successful attack would have a substantial adverse effect on the ATO's operations, through compromise of system availability and integrity, and through possible compromise of taxpayer information (for example breach of security, potential for fraudulent claims and identity theft).

As such, I consider that disclosure of the SQL queries represents a potential security risk to the ATO."

Zhu, Katy, Australian Taxation Office

Dear Patrick

Unfortunately, I am unable to provide the decision letter in Word version to you, as it is not our policy to do so.

Kind regards

Katy Zhu
Lawyer
General Counsel, ATO Corporate
Australian Taxation Office
P 03 8632 5064

Connect with us

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Timothy Fleming,

1 Attachment

Our reference: RQ16/00787

Agency reference: 1-7N10Z46

Mr Patrick Conheady

 

Dear Mr Conheady

 

Extension of time request under s15AB

On 23 February 2016, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) requested
further time to make a decision on your FOI request of 27 December 2015.

This request was on the basis that the processing period is insufficient
to deal adequately with your request, because it is complex and/or
voluminous.

As a delegate of the Information Commissioner I have decided to grant the
ATO an extension of time of 15 days for this request, to 11 March 2016.
This decision has been made under s15AB(2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (Cth) (the Act).

If you would like to discuss this matter you may contact me on 02 9284
9731 or via email [1][email address].

 

Yours sincerely

 

Timothy Fleming| Investigations Officer

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Level 3, 175 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |www.oaic.gov.au

Phone:  +61 2 9284 9731

Fax: +61 2 9284 9666

Email: [email address]

 

Protecting information rights – advancing information policy

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Zhu, Katy, Australian Taxation Office

2 Attachments

Dear Patrick

 

Please find attached a decision letter for charges to be paid with respect
to the processing of your second FOI request dated 27 December 2015. The
request was originally sent to the Inspector General of Taxation (IGT),
and was subsequently transferred to the ATO. This was the request for
emails and aggregate data the ATO provided to the IGT for the purposes of
the 2014 Review of the Administration of Penalties.

 

Kind regards

 

 

   
Katy Zhu

Lawyer

General Counsel, ATO Corporate

Australian Taxation Office
P 03 8632 5064

[1]cid:image007.png@01D0872C.6FBBE500

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Zhu, Katy, Australian Taxation Office

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Dear Mr Conheady

Thank you for your FOI request dated 22 February 2016. I apologise for the
delay in acknowledging you request. We will consider your request and
respond as soon as possible. FOI requests are required to be processed
within 30 days from the date we receive an application. While we aim to
achieve this timeframe, certain requests that are large or involve complex
issues may take longer. If this is the case we will contact you to discuss
when the material can be made available. Further, unless your request is
for personal information, charges may apply depending on the size and
complexity of your case. We will notify you if there are charges and what
those charges will be. We will obtain your consent to any additional
charges before processing the request.

Regards,

 

 

   
Katy Zhu

Lawyer

General Counsel, ATO Corporate

Australian Taxation Office
P 03 8632 5064

[1]cid:image007.png@01D0872C.6FBBE500

Connect with us

 

 

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Patrick Conheady left an annotation ()

There are two requests which are a little mixed-up in how they appear on this site.

1.
'SQL queries run for the Inspector-General of Taxation's report on penalties', which was submitted to the ATO (ATO ref 1-7N10Z46) and sought SQL queries executed by the ATO for the purposes of the IGT report:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/s...
This request was refused on 19 February 2016.

2.
'ATO data for IGT report on penalties', originally submitted to IGT (IGT reference IGT/16/00022) but transferred to the ATO (ATO reference 1-7N10Z46), which sought emails in relation to the ATO providing data to the IGT:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/a...
This request is still in progress.

Zhu, Katy, Australian Taxation Office

4 Attachments

Dear Mr Conheady

 

Please find attached my decision regarding your FOI request for documents
relating to the IGT’s 2014 review into the ATO’s administration of
penalties.

 

A schedule listing the documents and an edited version of the documents
for release are also attached.

 

Regards

 

   
Katy Zhu

Lawyer

General Counsel, ATO Corporate

Australian Taxation Office
P 03 8632 5064

[1]cid:image007.png@01D0872C.6FBBE500

Connect with us

 

 

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