A documentary project · Australia
One taxpayer. One hundred officers. One file.
Two years. Everything documented. Everything verified.
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every claim traceable to a record · every record verified against the original
When the file opens
The Australian Taxation Office holds legal powers almost no other agency has. This is the story of what its own records show those powers doing to one taxpayer — told from the government's own documents, released under Freedom of Information.
A computer model flags his tax return as possible fraud — the day after lodgement, before any human had read it. He is never told. On the phone, the instruction is recorded: "You don't tell him that it's a fraud model."
Case notes written days after the calls they describe — recording things the tapes show were never said, and leaving out what was. One note is dated a day on which no call took place.
A $23,447 "recklessness" penalty travels from an unsolicited internal email into the decision record word for word, overnight — and is never mentioned on the outcome call.
A secret suspicion that he forged a bank statement — shared among unnamed officers, never put to him, never tested, never withdrawn. He discovered it seventeen months later, through FOI. It is still on his file.
He writes to the Treasurer about his treatment. One business day later, the ATO's Media Unit lists him — in writing — as a "Media Threat": "Name of reported entity: Joshua Haines."
The ATO certifies that recordings of his own calls "cannot be found, do not exist or have not been received." A fresh search, forced on review, finds sixteen of them.
The complaints channel points to the Tribunal. The Tribunal rules the conduct "completely irrelevant" to its task. The compensation scheme waits for the litigation. Asked in what forum the conduct could ever be examined, the Commissioner has not named one.
What happens next, what the record finally settles, and everything the file becomes — our only redaction. The ATO sealed whole categories of his file with words like these; a fresh search found sixteen recordings behind one such certificate. This seal is different: it lifts when the file opens.
Not our words — theirs.
Every episode lays the official record beside the tape, document by document, and lets you decide what to call it.
Be there when it opensWhy this exists
Every episode takes you through one stage of the journey — audit, objection, review, appeal — the same way: first the rule the ATO wrote for itself, then the record of what happened. You learn the system by watching it tested.
The Taxpayers' Charter promises every taxpayer will be treated "fairly, honestly and respectfully."
An internal call, on tape: "You don't tell him that it's a fraud model — just say it's still under review."
Case notes must be made at the time, and be accurate, complete and neutral — because the notes are the permanent record.
Notes written days after the calls they describe, recording things the tapes show were never said. One is dated a day no call took place.
An objection is an independent review — the original decision-maker "must not interfere."
The objection officer, on tape: "It's not my call… we go to Case Leadership. If they don't agree with proposal, they weren't allowed."
The rules exist. Most people never learn them until it's too late. So alongside the story comes The Field Guide — free, plain-English, learned the hard way: the questions to ask at every stage, the timeframes they must honour, how to read your own file under FOI, and which watchdog actually does what. Know the system before it knows you.
Get the guide when the file opens“So it is not repeated against the next person with no way to fight it.”
Why this exists
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Verified records, a complete manuscript, original recordings — and a live ending. Media enquiries welcome.
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