Australian Taxation Office orders new building, despite 6200 empty desks

The ATO is going through with plans for a new multi-million dollar office building in Gosford. Photo: Jeffrey Chan

The Australian Taxation Office will spend millions of dollars on a new office building in regional NSW, despite more than 6200 desks sitting empty in ATO in its buildings around Australia.

The Taxation Office has confirmed the project will go ahead, calling for expressions of interest from developers to build the building in Gosford, on the state's central coast, but ATO bosses still cannot say what it will be used for.

The federal opposition says the ATO is being forced to spend money it does not have on offices it does not need.

The agency plans to move 300 of its public servants into the building when it is completed in 2017. It is unclear who will occupy the rest of the floors.

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But ATO staff were told last week the construction of the 6500-square-metre building would go ahead and that property consultants DTZ had been hired to find a builder for the project.

But assistant commissioner Stewart Smillie, the ATO's property boss, could not tell his colleagues which of them would be moved to the central coast, or even which of the Taxation Office's business units would be stationed there.

An ATO spokeswoman would not say if a business case or a cost benefit analysis had been prepared for the new building and that "budget support" for the project was still being discussed.

"It will take a number of years to complete the building project and we will consider the impact for our business and staffing closer to the new office opening."

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Australian Taxation Office orders new building, despite 6200 empty desks