ATO Tax Portal upgrade caused disruptions for accountants

Changes to the ATO’s online Tax Agent Portal caused access difficulties for some tax practitioners during the 2014 financial year, a committee audit has found.

The Tax and Revenue Committee’s second report into the ATO’s annual report for the financial year found that incidents such as this affected the relationship between accountants and the ATO.

The report is based on a hearing from September with the Commissioner of Taxation, Chris Jordan, which covered issues including the tax implications of the emerging sharing economy, exemplified by companies such as Uber.

Committee chair Bert van Manen has meanwhile welcomed the move from the ATO to report performance indicators on a quarterly basis to help better identify slippages in performance standards.

Manen said regular public hearings are an important part of the committee’s work in monitoring the progress of a modernising ATO.

“Bringing the ATO, scrutiny bodies and key stakeholders together in a forum like this ensures the ATO can explain the rollout of its change program as well as making sure that the ATO is responsive to the concerns of stakeholders, scrutineers, and accountable to the parliament,” he said.

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