As one of Australia’s largest customer-owned banks, Great Southern Bank is dedicated to providing the highest level of transparency to our customers.
As a responsible corporate citizen, consistently acting within the highest levels of integrity in regard to compliance and disclosure, Great Southern Bank’s commitment to tax transparency reflects both our principles-based approach, and most importantly, the significance our members place on honesty and trust.
We firmly believe our members deserve to clearly understand how much tax we pay, as well as our approach, and we are proud to publish this report for their benefit, further promoting best practice corporate governance.
Our approach to tax
Great Southern Bank adheres to an appropriately conservative level of tax risk and maintains a constructive, collaborative and transparent relationship with the relevant regulatory authorities to avoid unnecessary disputes.
To ensure we continue to act with the highest level of integrity, compliance, and disclosure in relation to tax, we follow the Tax Risk Management Policy and the Tax Risk Management Standard, providing a clear framework for the management of our tax risk.
For the betterment of our members, Great Southern Bank is firmly committed to:
- Paying the appropriate amount of tax to regulatory authorities;
- Avoiding tax positions which are not consistent with commercial dealings; and
- Maintaining internal control systems to ensure a positive compliance history for lodgements and payments
Our approach to risk
Great Southern Bank’s Risk Management Framework is based on the Three Lines of Defence model, which sees every member of our team play an active role in fostering a proactive culture, including the development and delivery of strategies, policies and procedures, to manage risk within our business.
Good Governance is critical in the management of risk, and our Board acts at the highest level of our risk governance, including an annual review of our Risk Appetite Statement and Risk Management Strategy. These documents clearly communicate both the type and degree of risk our Board is prepared to accept, as well as the level of risk in which we can operate.
This details Great Southern Bank’s approach to tax risk management together with tax information for the financial years listed below and meets all of the standards and requirements of the Voluntary Tax Transparency Code, as developed by the Federal Government’s Board of Taxation.