Dear Members,

We are making every effort on your behalf to obtain more information from the ATO about their progress in fixing the present problems with the ATO portal and online systems, and when those fixes are likely to allow you to resume your normal work using the ATO portal system.

We have been in touch with Senior ATO Officers and have been advised that they are working frantically towards effecting a fix as soon as possible. We have been assured that the ATO regards the tax agent portal as a high priority system, and hence is treating this matter with the highest priority. We have also been assured that there has been no loss of data.

We'll be keeping a close watch on the progress of developments and have asked to be kept up to date. We have also emphasised the importance of frequently keeping agents up to date on any progress.

The Tax Institute is acutely aware of the significant impact of this outage on our members’ practices and that members would have already suffered significant financial losses because of this outage. Lack of access to critical ATO systems is totally disruptive to agents being able to provide their usual client services, which translates to a loss of income. We have expressed to the ATO our disappointment on behalf of members that this has occurred and stressed to the ATO the adverse impact of the outage on tax agent practices.

The ATO is fully aware of the adverse impact this outage has caused and has assured us they are working to resolve this as soon as possible.

We will also look to continue this dialogue with the ATO to ensure that no tax agent or taxpayer is penalised as a result of the disruption.

We shouldn't rush to judgement without knowledge of all the facts, but there must be accountability. A full and thorough investigation of what happened needs to occur to ensure that this episode is never repeated.

Arthur Athanasiou
President

Noel Rowland
CEO