Our total legal expenditure for 2018–19 increased by $6.4 million (or 7%) when compared to the previous year, with the largest increase seen in the cost of briefs to counsel and other professional fees paid. This was primarily due to increased volume and complexity of cases including from the Tax Avoidance Taskforce and other compliance activities. The increase in expenditure is attributed to a rise in demand for external counsel and professional legal services, to enable the effective administration of matters which involve wide-ranging compliance issues from across the organisation.

NOTES

(a) Includes Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) legal costs for 2018–19. Total TBP external legal services expenditure was $410,671. Total internal legal services expenditure for TPB was $2,551,184.

(b) External expenditure in this table excludes GST.

(c) This figure represents the current year's costs recovered ($8,431,040), minus certain accrued costs which were reversed ($4,463,675) as not recoverable as at 30 June 2019.

(d) Excludes costs awarded against the ATO, costs for settlements, expenditure on compensation, and legal costs attributable to the ATO’s test case program.

(e) ATO internal legal officers manage tax litigation (under Part IVC of the Taxation Administration Act 1953), debt litigation, general legal advice and freedom of information. This amount consists of the cost of labour and expenses for those activities. Some ATO employees perform functions with some characteristics of legal work (for example, preparation of writs, statutory demands and bankruptcy notices) and provide interpretative advice on complex areas of tax and superannuation law. These activities are not undertaken by legal officers and are therefore not included in this amount.

NOTE

(a) ‘Direct’ briefs cover counsel briefed directly by the ATO and who work with our in-house litigators and/or business areas. ‘Indirect' briefs are counsel briefed by the ATO's external legal providers acting on behalf of the ATO.