Practical refusal notice

Written by Claude Haiku 5.5 from the extracted text on 14 Oct 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

This release is a notice of intention to refuse under the FOI Act, issued by the ATO's Office of General Counsel on 9 September 2026. It concerns a request for all prompts, inputs and Microsoft Copilot responses across the agency for 1 to 31 July 2026, plus associated metadata. The ATO found a practical refusal reason exists, estimating at least 44,618 potential documents (based on 22,309 officers, with one input and one output each) and roughly 371 hours of searching at one minute per account. It cites substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources, the need for sensitivity consultation with officers, and competing operational duties. The notice invites the applicant to narrow the request by period, business area or specific documents within 14 days. It contains no Copilot content, tax administration policy or compliance material.