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The ATO’s second commissioner and chief information officer, Ramez Katf, mapped out the ATO’s targets with its new tax agent portal for 2018, following lengthy development delays.
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Next rollout phase of new ATO portals imminent: second commissioner
22 February 2018
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The tax office is aiming to begin public beta testing of the new tax agent portal by the second quarter of this calendar year, Mr Katf told Accountants Daily.
It has been in private beta testing since about December last year, when around half of its functions were rolled out to a test group of what is now approximately 100 tax agents.
Delivery of the portal is approximately a year behind schedule. The mass digital outages which extended from December 2016 to February 2017 were a significant roadblock to development.
Mr Katf said system stability is a high priority during testing and development, which is a key concern for the tax agent community.
“I look at it in three lenses. I’ve got a very clear program centred on functionality, and there’s a lot of feedback from those helping test it. I’m looking at it from a technology perspective, and the resilience of that technology. The third one is a support capability out there, to make sure that we can help with the transition as tax agents start to take it up,” Mr Katf said.
When public rollout commences, tax agents will still be able to use the existing portal.
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In the meantime, Mr Katf is calling on software developers to improve their services to the tax agent community as well.
The existing portal has been plagued with outages and degraded performance since its inception, which has had a significant and material impact on the productivity and bottom lines of accounting firms.
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