Letter · Taxation
Letter responding to an ATO formal notice to give information or produce documents (with privilege claim)
Covering letter and schedules for answering an ATO formal notice: an item-by-item response, a document index, privilege and concession claims set out the way the ATO's LPP protocol expects, an extension request and a client confirmation.
- Kind
- Letter. A letter or email you adapt and send.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Red Keep AI out of the decisive steps. A lawyer does the work.
- Law stated as at
- 17 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked against the cited sources on 17 October 2026.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a client receives a notice under s 353-10 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (or a similar ATO notice power) and the lawyer is responding for them. Do not use it for informal ATO requests without first advising on whether to answer voluntarily, or where the notice may be a contempt of current proceedings: raise that first.
How AI may be used
Lawyer-led. AI may index, de-duplicate and organise the documents and build the response schedules. It must not write the answers given to the Commissioner or decide any privilege claim.
AI may
- Index, de-duplicate and number the documents and populate the document index (Schedule C) from metadata
- Map documents to Notice items as a draft for the lawyer to check
- Flag documents that may be privileged, such as communications with lawyers, as candidates for lawyer review
- Draft the reasons for an extension request from the lawyer's notes
AI must not
- Must not draft the substantive answers in Schedule B: they are statements to the Commissioner, and a false or misleading statement can be an offence
- Must not decide that a document is or is not privileged, or finalise Schedule D
- Must not process the client's documents or tax file numbers in a tool not approved for confidential client data
- Must not set or change the compliance date in the matter diary
The lawyer checks
- Every privilege claim reviewed document by document by a lawyer: the ATO's LPP protocol says computer-assisted processes alone are not a reasonable basis for a claim
- Every answer in Schedule B checked with the client and against source records, and the client confirmation signed
- Nothing produced falls outside the Notice, and every redaction is marked and explained
- The compliance date, any agreed extension and the transfer method confirmed in writing with the ATO officer
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Official form
Open the official form. Always use the current version from the issuer.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Taxation
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- Objection to an ATO assessment or decision: completion guide and grounds structure
- Voluntary disclosure to the ATO: completion guide and penalty-reduction checklist
- Verification checklist for AI-assisted tax research, advice and objections
- Client notice on AI use with tax records and tax file numbers