As part of providing quality revenue management services, we are committed to making it easier for people to understand and comply with the legislation we administer.
We believe most of our customers will comply with their obligations if aware of them, which means our emphasis is always on providing timely advice, education, assistance and information.
Our technical experts strive to ensure that the complexities of the legislation we administer are clearly communicated across numerous channels to general and specific audiences, and on a one-to-one basis.
In 2019-20, our Customer Contact Centre received 350,273 phone calls and managed 58,950 emails requesting assistance. As we increase our digital services, phone calls are decreasing.
Customer education
We conduct regular webinars, with customers registering to attend live sessions or watch recordings of them, as well as seminars on a range of topics. This year, we welcomed:
- 3140 people to 132 webinars, and
- 1080 people to 45 seminars.
In 2019-20, we also produced seven new videos on subjects including land tax, payroll tax, duties, and how to claim coronavirus land tax and payroll tax relief. Attracting nearly 12,000 plays, the videos showing people how to claim coronavirus land tax relief (5149 plays) and payroll tax relief (2985) were the most watched for the year.
Our education team also manage numerous decision tools related to land tax, buying and owning property, payroll tax, the commercial passenger vehicle service levy, and the growth areas infrastructure contribution. The most popular tool helps people assess their eligibility for the First Home Owner Grant.
A new decision tool this year helps people assess the taxes, duties and benefits involved in buying a home in Victoria, while another assisted people to determine eligibility for coronavirus land tax relief.
Private rulings
Where customers identify a tax technical or legislative issue making them uncertain of their liability, we assist by issuing private rulings.
In 2019-20, our technical experts issued 1257 private ruling and exemption decisions, which are in addition to public rulings issued and published on our website that:
- Represent our interpretation of a particular provision.
- Explain our current policies, guidelines and practices.
- Answer complex, commonly asked questions.
