Chantal Papakalodoukas

It has always been a dream of mine to work at the Australian Taxation Office. My dream came true when I decided that after 10 years of being a broker I would apply and start a new career and challenge. When I got the phone call to say that I had been successful I was ecstatic. My first day I was very nervous but everyone made me feel welcome and I have made some very good friendships and work relationships.

Everyday I go to work and set myself challenges and goals when it comes to resolving complaints. I am always ready to take on extra work if I am asked to assist with finalising complaints that may need actioning urgently.

My team leader approached me to see if I would like the opportunity to further my skills by resolving escalated complaints. Of course I have taken the opportunity and with this I trained myself in Obligation & Payment, Recovery Action and Penalty & Interest. This was with the support of my Team Leader, EL1 and EL2. I am on track to be able to take on higher duties when a position becomes available.

When I am resolving complaints my goal is to restore the public's faith in the ATO.

An example of this is that a young client lodged a complaint about fraudulent tax returns being submitted on their account. These fraudulent returns resulted in a credit of the amount $17,506 this was paid to a fraudulent bank account. This credit was reimbursed back to the clients ITA, once this amount was reimbursed it fixed the debits on the clients account for them to only owe the genuine debt of $2,043.85. The client thought that this was going to hinder their position to buy their first home. I called the client to confirm the dates that they had submitted the genuine tax returns. Unfortunately they couldn't advise me of this as their tax agent had submitted the genuine tax returns. I requested for them to give me their tax agents details so that I could confirm the dates with them. The client provided me with the details, I phoned the tax agent who provided me with the information that I required and the debt that the client had on their account was the correct amount. I phoned the client back straight away to advise them that the debt on the account was correct. I provided the client with the details to pay the debt. Client was still upset as they thought the fraudulent debt amount was on their credit file. I informed the client that tax debt that hadn't been referred to an external collection agency doesn't show up on their credit file. When the client asked how certain are you of this I let them know that I used to be a mortgage broker so I was very certain. Client was very thankful and very relieved, I was so happy by the end of that call as I managed to restore faith in the client and was able to stop them crying.