How do full assessment and self assessment compare?

How do full assessment and self assessment compare?
There are diverse views on the answer to this question. On the one hand, not a great deal of the law was changed, so one might argue that the current system has much in common with the system that preceded it. Both systems require taxpayers to complete and lodge annual returns with the Tax Office and, in preparing those returns, both systems require taxpayers to correctly apply the relevant parts of the income tax law. Under both systems, the Tax Office issues notices of assessment, but can review returns later and impose interest and penalties on any income tax shortfall detected.
Nevertheless, many taxpayers consider that with the move to self assessment there was an important change to the finality of the Tax Office’s assessment. This difference has been a matter of great significance for some and it seems that certain aspects of the self assessment system have not been widely understood. The Chapters that follow attempt to determine the real impacts of the changed system.