The ATO has spent almost a million dollars finding out many Australians do not believe it is fair.

Reports this week say the Tax Office paid international market research firm Kantar Millward Brown $973,530 (excluding GST) over fours years to survey Australian individuals and businesses about their interactions with the agency.

It appears that 44 per cent of taxpayers surveyed felt the agency was not fair or professional in its handling of tax disputes.

Less than half felt well-informed about their dispute process, while 45 per cent though the time taken to resolve their dispute was not reasonable.

The ATO issued a statement explaining the extensive survey as a tool to develop “fairness metrics across the organisation”.

“Regular fairness data and insights allow the ATO to increase its responsiveness to changes in community perceptions,” the ATO said in statement.

“These insights are used internally to drive a range of activities that focus on delivering an experience to both taxpayers and tax agents they perceive to be fair. Some examples include fairness training for all team leaders in client-facing areas.”

Ken Phillips, from small business advocacy group Self-Employed Australia, says the survey result is shameful.

“The ATO presents the report as a positive because there has been an increase in taxpayer perceptions of fairness since 2014,” Mr Phillips said.

“If the ATO were a business, the report would be considered a disaster.

“The survey results add justification to our calls for major reform of the ATO.”

This comes just a short time after allegations of bullying and heavy-handed treatment of small businesses by the ATO.