OSfA revamp has benefits beyond accounting, bodies say

The accounting bodies said these recommendations would be a “simple productivity win” and a solution to improvements accountants have “consistently called for”.

Feature gripes

The bodies supported the ombudsman’s recommendation to improve the Practice Mail system, including, in the short term, “simpler categorisation, better notifications and preventing response timeframes from restarting when requests are redirected”.

“Practice Mail also remains a concern. Tax agents require secure, efficient two-way digital communication with the ATO so matters can be progressed, tracked and resolved without unnecessary phone calls,” IPA tax and super advisor Letty Chen said.

“We also welcome the ATO’s commitment to secure two-way Practice Mail, which will allow more efficient communication between practitioners and the ATO,” CA ANZ tax, superannuation, and financial services leader Susan Franks said.

"We want to see clear timeframes, a published delivery plan and genuine consultation with the profession on which improvements should be prioritised,” CPA Australia tax lead Jenny Wong said.

The IPA said that its members also frequently raise concerns about client correspondence not appearing in OSfA.

“Greater visibility of ATO correspondence within OSfA would strengthen the client-agent relationship, improve efficiency, reduce confusion and support better outcomes for taxpayers,” Chen said. 

“Practitioners cannot effectively manage tax affairs when important communications are sent directly to clients without visibility for their authorised agent,” Chen said.

In addition, the report found that BAS agents cannot access superannuation guarantee charge (SGC) accounts through OSfA.

“This makes it harder for BAS agents who manage employer payroll and superannuation obligations to reconcile accounts, monitor liabilities and help clients meet their obligations,” the report said.

The ATO accepted the ombudsman’s recommendation to give BAS agents access to SGC account information.

“The recommendation to provide BAS Agents with access to Superannuation Guarantee Charge account information is especially timely given the increased frequency of superannuation payments under Payday Super,” said Chen.

“Even if implementing this change involves technical complexity, BAS agents should still be able to access information they need to perform work they are already authorised to undertake,” the report said.

CA ANZ said the ombudsman’s report missed an opportunity to address the lack of live tracking features.

“We are disappointed that the review stopped short of recommending real-time tracking of lodgements, objections and ruling requests,” Franks said.

“Tax practitioners should be able to track the status of client matters without having to make follow-up enquiries. Greater transparency would improve efficiency, reduce frustration, and help practitioners better support their clients.”

Transparency must come first

The report revealed structural barriers to the prioritisation of improvements to the OSfA system. Following these findings and recommendations, the ATO agreed to “improve transparency around prioritisation decisions”.

“The ATO will also develop and communicate a clearer framework to support greater transparency, help manage expectations, and provide agents with a better understanding of how their feedback contributes to the ATO's system improvement and investment decisions,” the ATO said in its response.

In light of these findings, the ombudsman’s review reads: “The ATO prioritises ideas based on factors such as the impact on agents, legal and regulatory requirements, business priorities, service delivery needs, security requirements, technical issues, funding availability and implementation costs.”

Wong said that while not every suggested improvement can be implemented immediately, transparency is crucial.

According to the report, the ATO currently has a 100-update backlog for its improvements to OSfA, which the bodies agreed are holding the profession back.

“The Ombudsman's observation that improvement requests can fall into a 'black hole' reflects exactly what many practitioners tell us," Wong said.

“What they want is transparency. There should be a clear framework showing how requests are assessed, where they sit in the queue, and whether they are likely to proceed," said Wong.

“We strongly support the recommendation that the ATO place greater weight on the needs of tax practitioners when setting technology priorities,” Franks said.

“Greater transparency around how projects are selected and delivered will help ensure resources are directed to improvements that deliver the best impact for practitioners and their clients,” Franks said.

Inefficiency concerns

While IPA said OSfA is becoming increasingly unfit for purpose, the bodies agreed the service is creating a host of bottlenecks from unnecessary manual work.

“Every unnecessary phone call, every manual workaround and every re-keyed request is dead weight multiplied across the entire system,” Wong said.

“Tax agents should not be manually redacting documents, relying on phone calls for routine interactions or managing processes that could be automated,” she added.

“This report confirms what tax practitioners have been saying for years: the ATO’s online services are not keeping pace with the realities of modern practice,” Chen said.

"We encourage the implementation of the recommendations as a matter of urgency. Improving OSfA will reduce administrative burden, improve productivity and deliver a better experience for practitioners, taxpayers and the tax system as a whole," Chen added. 

Against the backdrop of the report’s findings that Australia’s 63,865 registered tax practitioners help 96 per cent of businesses and 62 per cent of individual taxpayers navigate the tax system, the bodies said improvements to OSfA would benefit more than accounting firms.

"When highly skilled professionals spend hours chasing paperwork and navigating workarounds, that's a productivity cost,” Wong said.

“Tax practitioners need better access to client information, better communication tools and more efficient ways to manage client matters digitally,” Franks said.

“When agents are forced into manual workarounds, duplicate processes and unnecessary phone calls, the cost is ultimately borne by small businesses, taxpayers and the broader tax system,” Chen said.