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Despite signalling he would leave in 18 months, Chris Jordan could see his digitisation project through to the end of the decade.
Tax chief refuses to rule out third term
12 October 2022
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7 minute read
ATO commissioner Chris Jordan is refusing to rule out a third term as head of the Tax Office when his second term ends in April 2024.
Mr Jordan, 68, signalled in 2019 that he would not seek a third term but the ATO declined to confirm this in response to questions in the wake of an interview with him last month.
Repeated requests failed to clarify the matter although the ATO said, in full:
“The Commissioner is focused on his current term and continuing to deliver outcomes for the Australian community.”
During the interview, which will be featured in the IPA’s Public Accountant magazine in November, Mr Jordan emphasised the scale of the task now facing the ATO in the wake of the pandemic.
He said it needed to rebuild revenue and reduce its debt book after more than two years of allowing taxpayers to postpone payments during COVID.
Despite occasional controversy, Mr Jordan is widely considered to have been an effective tax commissioner. He has maintained the ATO’s reputation at a time when similar organisations overseas, such as the US Internal Revenue Service, have sometimes come under heavy political pressure.
Mr Jordan is also widely seen as relatively apolitical. He was appointed by then ALP treasurer Wayne Swan at the end of 2012. Previously, he had worked for John Howard when Howard was Opposition Leader, and later headed a project team for the Abbott government’s treasurer, Joe Hockey. Scott Morrison extended his term in 2017.
Current Treasurer Jim Chalmers might welcome the chance to reappoint Mr Jordan. Dr Chalmers was Wayne Swan’s chief-of-staff when Mr Jordan was appointed and would welcome his enthusiasm for getting ATO revenues back up to speed as soon as possible.
Mr Jordan has shown a willingness to take on larger corporates, a priority for this Labor government. As ATO head, Mr Jordan’s first high-profile campaign was to ensure tech multinationals such as Apple, Google and Microsoft paid what the ATO considered the lawful level of Australian taxes.
Mr Jordan is also a prime mover behind the ATO’s race to digitise, with the vision of a future in which “tax just happens” outlined at the Xerocon event last month.
Extending Mr Jordan’s term would require no special measures. Changes to public service laws in 1999 removed compulsory retirement for public servants on the grounds of age.
If he served a third term, Jordan would become Australia’s second longest-serving Commissioner of Taxation. Robert Ewing had the job from 1917 to 1939.
Since the job was created in 1910, most of the Tax Office’s 12 commissioners of taxation have served for at least a decade. The most recent to serve 15 years or more was Patrick McGovern, who filled the role from 1946 to 1961.
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- "Would welcome that extension, certainly has changed the culture within the ATO, much easier to deal with." Yes and with the wonderful culture he has established between the ATO and the profession he has gone MIA again with the floods just as he did during the pandemic. No mention of lodgment extensions for flood-affected areas. He would rather have tax agents in Ivan Milat's empty cell for failing to lodge returns on time.0
- Please bring back Michael D'Ascenzo the previous Commissioner - a very responsive and compassionate Commissioner. He really listened to us overburdened tax professionals. I remember the Tax Act 1936 was only one inch thick when I started to operate as an accountant at the tender age of 21 in 1971. Now 72 years old, I cannot even jump over the GST act, let alone all the other acts.2
- Jordan an effective tax commissioner? What a laugh! Trevor Boucher was the best tax commissioner including being so down to earth with people of all walks of life. People on both sides of the fence loved him. One of his greatest legacies is that he decentralised the ATO to reach out to people, but that was reversed by the next commissioner.2
- Would welcome that extension, certainly has changed the culture within the ATO, much easier to deal with.0
- The divide between the ATO and the tax profession has only grown under Jordan’s “leadership”. The ATO approach continues to become more aggressive, best demonstrated by stretching the original intent of s100A in an attempt to raise more revenue. Time for a new, more collaborative commissioner to rise to the occasion.2
- The ATO seems to have a policy of fines to help it generate additional income. I would love to hear in light of his recent presentation to Xero, what does he see the role of a tax agent post 2030? If the ATO intends to be able to process most of the tax returns direct, I'm not sure we need a larger, inefficient public service industry.0
