The Australian Taxation Office will look to cherry-pick new executives from top companies, hoping to bring in the best of the best for handy tax advice.

Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan has indicated he would like to see more private sector involvement in the running of the ATO.

Mr Jordan says the ATO needs to stay on top of “contemporary business practices”, and forming an expert panel of hired guns from big companies would be a good way to do it.

Movements in the small business arena are not of interest, if the AusTender website is anything to go by. The online listing for a spot on the panel stipulates applicants must have at least ten years senior executive experience with companies turning over more than $2 billion annually.

The tender listing says the ATO wants people from the banking and finance, insurance, natural resources and energy, e-commerce and international business sectors.

“It is not about outsourcing work,” a tax office spokesperson said this week.

“This tender will establish a list of experts that can provide high-level specialist advice to the ATO.”

“It will be a panel of experts that we can draw on as required to contribute their knowledge.”

The plan follows on from reports late last year in financial media which suggested big businesses may be allowed to oversee more of their own tax requirements, to save time and money for the government department. The agency is still considering a pilot scheme allowing some companies to appoint their own tax auditors.

Both ideas have been criticised by union as potential means of outsourcing government jobs.

The ATO says its expert panel, dubbed the ‘Business and Industry Experts Register’, will not perform any functions normally carried out by government employees.

There is plenty of advice insiders say big businesses will want to give the ATO. It will likely including moves to allow more privacy in official boardroom discussions to allow executive to speak more frankly about their financial affairs.