TAS RTPWG minutes, February 2010

12. Tax Time Seminar and the TAXAGENT magazine

A quick update was provided to members on the changes to both the Tax Time Seminar and the TAXAGENT magazine.

The face to face component of the June tax time seminar will not be proceeding this year - however the seminar presentation will instead be available via www.ato.gov.au as a video stream; an audio podcast, by transcript and as a PDF version of the guide. It is planned to mail DVDs to each registered tax agent in Australia.

A change has also been made to the way the TAXAGENT magazine will be made available to tax practitioners in 2010. Historically the magazine has been mailed out every quarter, but from March 2010 onwards the magazine will only be available online from the ATO website.

Feedback on a prototype of the new online magazine was sought from practitioners (including the Tasmanian RTPWG members). Practitioners said:

they liked the look and feel of the online magazine
found the navigation easy (although many suggested the index should be linked to the articles - this capability is planned for the March edition)
the ability to link to further information on the ATO website was a great advantage
they would need a reminder for each edition and requested this be done via eLink.

Suggestions provided were to:

include a summary of tax rulings, determinations and practice statements for the quarter
link to any video or webcasts from the magazine
ensure that the ATO takes into account any feedback from the agent community after the first few issues have been released.

Meeting discussion

There was no further discussion on this topic at the meeting.

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