Ignored messages, delays causing major frustration with OSfA: The Tax Institute

In a recent submission, the Tax Institute said that OSfA had been a “longstanding pain point for tax practitioners“, and called for a number of recommendations to improve the Tax Office's online services.

The submission outlined that while tax practitioners are encouraged to use the ATO's online services, these channels are not functioning effectively in practice.

“In particular, members note that online messages often receive no response unless the matter is routine such as a PAYG instalment election,“ it said.

“Even when messages are lodged multiple times, they are frequently not actioned.“

Practitioners are then forced to resort to contacting the ATO by phone to progress matters which can be time consuming.

“Several follow up calls are sometimes needed due to variations in ATO staff knowledge, training, or authority,“ it said.

“In many cases, matters are only resolved after a formal complaint is lodged, an approach members consider should not be necessary simply to prompt the ATO to review and resolve a matter.“

The institute said its members want to see improved transparency and proactive communication to enhance user confidence and reduce the need for additional follow-up.

“Also, enabling ATO staff to action matters directly from OSfA and providing clearer progress updates, including where phone escalation is required, would improve efficiency and reduce unnecessary delays for practitioners and their clients,“ the submission said.

The submission also highlighted that OSfA fails to recognise that taxpayers often have different tax agents appointed for different tax matters.

“Currently, a taxpayer can only appoint one tax agent for each of corporate tax, fringe benefits tax and goods and services tax,“ it said.

“However, taxpayers often appoint different agents for other obligations outside these categories such as superannuation and pay-as-you-go (PAYG) purposes. Further, taxpayers routinely engage specialist agents for discrete issues such as Private Binding Ruling (PBR) applications.“

The Tax Institute said the days when a tax agent could expect to have specialist knowledge across all areas of the tax system “were in the past“.

“As a result, we expect to see greater involvement of specialist tax advisers in the future as members seek to ensure the best tax advice is provided to their clients,“ it said.

“The ATO’s systems and frontline processes do not consistently recognise these separate authorisations. There is a pressing need for ATO systems to expand their agent of record functionality to recognise agents across a wider range of taxes and obligations.“

The Tax Institute has called for the ATO to expand its agent recognition framework to align with modern practice, in which taxpayers engage specialist advisers for discrete areas of the law.

“This would allow ATO officers to readily identify and engage with the correct authorised agent for the specific issue being discussed,“ it said.

The Tax Institute has also called for other changes, such as improving processing time frames for practice mail submissions and introducing a mechanism that notifies tax agents when a client’s correspondence preference changes to myGov.

Tax professionals have also raised concerns about the new format of client account transactions on OSfA, particularly within the activity statement account.

“The updated layout is complex and significantly increases the difficulty of reconciling client accounts and determining accurate closing balances,“ The Tax Institute said.

The new display lists each business activity statement (BAS) item separately without showing a running balance alongside each amount, it added.

“Only the final total BAS figure is accompanied by a running balance. In addition, payments are broken down and matched to individual BAS items and the total BAS amount payment is also shown as a separate line item, adding further confusion.“

“The new presentation introduces unnecessary complexity, increases the risk of reconciliation errors, and adds to agent frustration when attempting to manage client accounts efficiently.“

The Tax Institute has called for the ATO to revert to its previous format for activity statement accounts, as the old format was much clearer, logical, and easier to navigate.

Other professional associations, including CPA Australia and the National Tax and Accountants’ Association (NTAA), have flagged similar issues with OSfA, including gaps in functionality, poor system reliability, and a lack of responsiveness and transparency.

The NTAA pointed out that many routine tasks could not be completed through OSfA, including changing client correspondence preferences between postal and digital, transferring credits between client accounts and manually marking payment plans as complete once the balance had been paid in full.

CPA Australia suggested the Tax Office make core online transactions, such as payment plans, refunds, document IDs and activity statement revisions, reliable and complete.

Both CPA Australia and the NTAA also raised concerns with practice mail's lack of transparency and two-way communication.

“Response times are slow and inconsistent, with no visibility of where a request sits in the queue or when an outcome can be expected,” the association said.

“Members reported waiting times well beyond 28 days for responses to routine matters, with follow-up calls yielding little more than confirmation that the matter has been escalated.”