ATO and Administration Appeals Tribunal

About 85% of all ATO court actions are in the Administration Appeals Tribunal (AAT). The AAT provides independent review of a wide range of administrative decisions made by the Australian government and some non-government bodies – such as the Australian Tax Office.

The AAT aims to provide fair, impartial, high quality and prompt review. It has less formality and technicality than other courts. It seeks to be fair, just, economical, informal and quick: Section 33 of the AAT Act.

From our experience we have about a 50/50 chance of winning against the ATO in this jurisdiction.

The Tribunal does not have a general power to review decisions made under Commonwealth legislation. The Tribunal can only review a decision if an Act, regulation or other legislative instrument provides specifically that the decision is subject to review by the Tribunal. Jurisdiction is generally conferred by the relevant act.

The Tribunal has jurisdiction to review decisions made under more than 400 separate Acts and legislation. Decisions in the areas of tax, social security, veterans' affairs and workers’ compensation are the bulk of the Tribunal's workload. The Tribunal also reviews decisions in areas such as bankruptcy, civil aviation, citizenship, corporations law, customs, freedom of information, immigration, industry assistance and passports. It can also review security assessments undertaken by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

AAT’s noble goals

The Tribunal has some worthy goals:

• orderly and controlled passage from lodgement to resolution
• equitable and fair treatment of all the parties
• enhance public confidence in itself

How does a matter proceed?

On receipt of an application (which the Tribunal has jurisdiction) the Tribunal notifies the decision-maker that the application has been made.

Within 28 days of receiving notice of an application, the decision-maker provides to the Tribunal and to the applicant a statement of reasons for the decision and all documents that are relevant to the review – known as 'Section 37 documents' or the 'T documents'.

One or more conferences, conducted by a Conference Registrar or Tribunal member, are held with the parties. This is to discuss the issues in dispute, identify any further material that parties may wish to obtain and explore whether the matter can be settled.

Conferences also provide an opportunity to discuss the future conduct of the application and, in particular, whether another form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) may assist in resolving the matter. The other forms of ADR available in the Tribunal are conciliation, mediation, case appraisal and neutral evaluation.

The Tribunal assists the parties to attempt to reach an agreed resolution, while ensuring that appropriate steps are taken to prepare for hearing those matters that do not settle. Parties are expected to play an active role in identifying legal and factual issues early in the pre-hearing process. This encourages early resolution of disputes or, where that is not possible, a clear framework within which the parties can prepare for hearing.

Where an agreed resolution cannot be reached, the Tribunal conducts a hearing and makes a formal decision. For the purposes of the hearing, the Tribunal may be constituted by one, two or three members.

The Tribunal has developed a number of practice directions and jurisdictional guides. These outline the procedures to manage applications lodged with the Tribunal. These include:

the General Practice Direction, which applies to applications lodged with the Tribunal where the applicant is represented unless another specific legislative procedure, practice direction or jurisdictional guide applies.

the Small Taxation Claims Tribunal Practice Direction.

the Guide to the Social Security Jurisdiction.

the Guide to the Workers' Compensation Jurisdiction.

Can I go straight to the AAT?

The Tribunal is not always the first avenue of review of an administrative decision. In some cases, the Tribunal cannot review a decision until an internal review has been conducted by the person or body that made the primary decision. In other cases, review by the Tribunal is only available after intermediate review by a specialist tribunal. For example, in relation to family assistance and social security decisions, an application may be made to the Tribunal only after review by the Social Security Appeals Tribunal.