The end of the financial year is here already! It seems that so little time has passed since we welcomed in 2023. As we approach EOFY, we invite you to reflect on the last year. So much has happened in the previous year that we are still catching up with – more clients are expecting remote and fast turnaround services, cashflow planning continues to rise, the growing importance of sustainability reporting and the explosion of artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT.
For Tax and BAS agents, clients must be added to the ATO portal to prepare and lodge reports via SBR enabled software like GovReports. This is a cumbersome process if a new client comes along and there is need to lodge a tax return or simply a IAS/BAS only then to get an error message that you are not authorised to lodge for the reporting entity because the client is not registered under your agent number from the portal or that they were previously on your portal but has since been removed.
ATO Electronic Lodgment Service (ELS) has for a long time been the lodgment gateway for tax professionals to submit compliance and regulatory reports to the tax office on behalf of clients via software providers. The days of using ELS software are now numbered as ATO replaces ELS with Standard Business Reporting (SBR) from April 2017 and by the new term, Practitioner Lodgment Service (PLS).
With the Federal Budget just around the corner, the Government’s annual budget is once again under scrutiny. What will be cut? Where can the Government makes its savings? What worthwhile projects should taxpayers money be spent on? Where can waste be identified?
One of the effects of the slimming down of the Australian Tax Office in the recent Federal Budget announcement, will be the need for the ATO to move its functionality online.
And the ATO is preparing for this switch. From April 2014, those who lodge PAYG Withholding Annual Reports, TFN Declarations, Annual Investment Income Reports, Quarterly TFN Reports and Taxable Payment Annual Reports will be getting messages from the ATO pushing them to embrace this online direction.