ATO Flunks the Fairness Test. Blame Parliament!

When it comes to tax enforcement, Australians have the legal status of convicts. The ATO is the ‘whip-wielding colonial master’ authorised by Parliament.

This is a Substack post that should make all Australians fearful. This can happen to anyone. This is colonial style oppression of Australians, sanctioned by Parliament using The Australian Taxation Office. I’m not being melodramatic. I’m just stating reality.

Quite recently (14 July 2025), the Channel 9 investigative show, A Current Affair, ran the story of one Australian massively beaten up by the Australian Taxation Office over alleged tax debt and alleged tax fraud. Over a decade or so, businessman Jae Jang his family and one of his employees were subject to unrelenting, massive ATO oppression. His sister suicided after the ATO emptied her bank account. His employee had a full mental breakdown. But the ATO’s oppression had no basis in fact as found in the Federal Court, and both civil and criminal charges by the ATO were all dropped.

The Jae Jang case is shocking. I have a decades long history of fighting the ATO on many similar shocking cases. The ATO’s treatment of Jae, his family and employee is standard ATO oppressive procedure. I said on A Current Affair, “They (ATO) literally can destroy you. They have the power under the law to do that, and they do it” and “…anyone can get caught up in this and you don’t even understand what it happens when it happens to you.”

Remember the Robodebt scandal? The Australian social services department alleged that tens of thousands of welfare recipients had been overpaid because they had income that was higher than declared. Low-income people were harassed, traumatised, had their bank accounts drained, and people suicided. The Royal Commission found that the department was totally wrong. Yet here’s the kicker…

The income data relied on was supplied to the social services department by the ATO. The ATO knew that the data was incomplete and was being used by social services in their audits in a dodgy way. The ATO could have and should have called this out and stopped the disaster. They did not.

People, we have a problem! The Australian Government does not protect us. It oppresses us whenever it can. With Robodebt, the ATO colluded with social services to oppress massive numbers of low-income people. The ATO does this daily. And it’s not a Labor is good, Liberals are bad issue. Robodebt happened under Liberals. The ATO oppression has happened for years and continues under both Labor and Liberal Governments.

Back to Jae Jang’s case…

Around 2010, Jae responded to new Australian legislation that encouraged wine producers to experiment and create new wine-based products. Jae’s new products had the ‘look’ and flavour of spirit-based products. Jae applied to and received from the ATO a ruling that his products were wine based and would be taxed at the excise rate of wine rather than the higher spirit tax. He subsequently received a second ATO ruling that confirmed the first.

However, in 2013 the ATO flipped and alleged a tax debt against Jae and garnished (forcibly took money out of) his bank account. In 2015 the ATO applied for a winding up order of his business, but this failed when Jae appealed. Not stopping, the ATO alleged criminal behaviour by Jae 10 years earlier and issued a tax ruling the reverse of their earlier rulings.

Jae went to the Federal Court and shifted production to New Zealand. He imported his wine into Australia with Border Force agreeing it was wine-based and taxed at the lower rate. Jae’s sister, said she’d help Jae, but the ATO garnished her bank account leaving her penniless. She suicided. Six weeks later the ATO had the Federal Police arrest Jae on criminal charges of ‘conspiracy to defraud the Commonwealth’ and he was thrown into jail.

Later, the Federal Court ruled that Jae’s products are wine based and ordered the ATO to pay all of Jae’s legal costs. Despite this the ATO continued with the criminal action until, after another 2.5 years, they dropped the case before going to court because the “prosecution had no evidence to offer.”

The ATO put one of Jae’s employees through the same process. She had a breakdown. Her husband died of cancer which she says the ATO contributed to.

It’s well worthwhile watching the Current Affair 18 min episode to fully understand the extent of the ATO vitriolic behaviour and processes. I have seen and documented many such cases. Many of these were exposed in the 2018 ABC Four Corners show Mongrel Bunch of Bastards. The ATO’s behaviour is not isolated. It’s their standard process. It happens to people all the time. Rich people, middle income and poor people! The ATO’s behaviour in Robodebt proves that everyone is at risk of oppression from the pinnacle of authoritarian government in Australia, the ATO.

So, there is the problem and there is a solution:

I said on A Current Affair, “We have to make sure that people pay the correct amount of tax, not the amount the ATO bludgeon out of you.” That’s the core point, and we know what to do.

The following day after Jae’s story, A Current Affair did a 5 min follow up explaining the solution. This is worth watching. This will further surprise and shock you on the powers of the ATO. They are the only government agency that can raid and invade your house and seize your personal documents and belongings without obtaining a warrant or court order. ACA showed evidence of the ATO tampering with documents to fabricate a case. If this happened in any private business, it would be fraud. But with the ATO, its ignored. I’ve seen evidence of other similar ATO document tampering.

So, the solution? ACA interviewed ex-federal politician, Jason Falinski, who chaired a parliamentary tax committee investigating the ATO. The committee confirmed the ATO problem and made recommendations for legislative change to bring justice and proper rule of law process to the ATO. That report gathers dust.

I have covered these issues, including the packaged legislative ‘solution’ previously in my Substack ATO Reform. We need action!

What we need is for the parliament to stand up. That is for all sides of the political spectrum to stand up for the people of Australia. Stop the authoritarian, colonial style powers and behaviours of the ATO and defend the rights of all Australians to rule of law treatment. This will not diminish the ability of the ATO to collect tax. It will require the ATO to collect the correct amount of tax not the tax that they bludgeon out of people.

And I can’t finish this post without a shout out to the media.

Many thanks to the team at A Current Affair for the hard work they put in over the story. The media are frequently criticised but they also, more frequently, do a great and essential job. In this case without the team at A Current Affair, the persecution of Jae and his colleagues by the ATO would be hidden from public view. The Australian people would never know the truth. A big thanks also to the team at Four Corners in 2018, journalist Robert Gottliebsen at The Australian and Adele Ferguson and Nassim Khadem at the ABC who have followed the issue for years, along with others. Slowly, the evidence of, and the case against the ATO oppressive powers and behaviours builds. It’s evidence that legislative change is essential.

More on the ATO click here