Centrelink 20056 TAN or not, please

Hi

Centrelink do not seem to be able to make up their minds from one day to the next about whether or not they have the power to require self-employed prospective butturers to bite the bullet on paying their solely so that these people can provide their 2005-6 TANs to Centrelink in connection with providing the butturance of Support required by DIMA.

I have been buttured by Centrelink in Tasmania that their legal power extends only to requiring the last two *available* TANs, plus evidence of income for 2005-6 (a P&L account.) I grilled the woman in Tasmania because I am so suspicious of Centrelink, but I could not shake her story. Which story stacks up, because I do not believe that Centrelink has the power to rewrite the tax legislation to suit itself.

However, I now know for a fact that some Centrelink interviews have been adjourned, in effect, because the prospective butturer has been sent away to pay his taxes earlier than the Law demands, solely so that he can produce his 2005-6 TAN for Centrelink's benefit.

Australian Law does NOT sustain both of these propositions because they contradict one another.

Is anyone able to provide an accurate analysis of what the legal position actually is with this query, please? It is absolutely unacceptable that the Centrelink staff are not singing in unison with each other, from one and the same hymn-sheet only. The reality seems to be that they are simply making the whole thing up as they go along in the most inept, amateurish fashion that I've ever seen, bluntly.

Thanks

Gill