‘Sub-standard’ ATO portal damaging relationships: IPA

accountants/tax-agents/ATO/IPA/

8 September 2015
| By Nicholas |
image
image
expand image

Tax agents' reputations and client relationships are being damaged by the Australian Taxation Office's (ATO's) push for more digital interactions, the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) claims.

IPA chief executive, Andrew Conway, described the ATO's portal as "sub-standard", reporting that the tax office's drive to use the digital system was "coming at the expense of tax agent practices".

"The ATO portal which is an essential tool of trade for practitioners and agents has been a constant point of frustration due to the portal's instability and unreliability," he said. "More digital interactions are putting even more reliance on the sub-standard portal.

"The ATO has acknowledged that the portal is far from best practice and is currently working on a long term solution through the migration to a new more functional platform.

"Our members have highlighted to us on many occasions that they have suffered productivity loss, missed deadlines, and incurred irrecoverable costs as well as damage to the reputations and relationships with their clients.

"Transitioning to a digital delivery for BAS statements and the use of the Client Correspondence List on the portal are two recent examples causing frustration and which are having a detrimental impact on the relationship between tax agents and the ATO."

While the IPA has expressed its frustration with the ATO's portal, the tax office said it would aim to work with tax practices to ensure future changes do not add additional tasks that practices will need to accommodate outside of their normal processes.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

3 weeks ago

Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has provided further information about the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms....

1 week 6 days ago

One licensee has lost 27 advisers in the past week, now sitting at zero, according to the latest Wealth Data figures....

3 weeks ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS