The ATO plans to end the tax agent public beta for online services for agents on 17 August, following the completion of the public testing for BAS agents earlier in May.
While the tax and BAS agent portals will continue to remain available in the meantime, online services for agents will be the default system for agents, with updates set to stop for the portal.
The Tax Office has yet to announce an official date for the decommissioning of the tax and BAS agent portals, but ATO assistant commissioner Colin Walker had previously hinted at a potential end by March 2020, in line with the phase-out of AUSkey.
AUSkey is set to be phased out by the first quarter of next year, with myGovID set to replace it as the new authentication solution.
That will leave agents with approximately seven months to get on board with the new online services for agents, if they have yet to do so already.
The ATO notes that user feedback has reduced significantly during the public beta, but it has committed to making refinements in the future.
A recent addition to online services includes a change to the prefill service, which now enables agents to view or download prefill reports for up to five clients at a time in reports and forms.
Jotham Lian
Jotham Lian is the news editor of Accountants Daily, the leading source of breaking news, analysis and insight for Australian accounting professionals.
Before joining the team in 2017, Jotham wrote for a range of national mastheads including the Sydney Morning Herald, and Channel NewsAsia.
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