Tax Profession Digital Implementation Group key messages 21 August 2023

Welcome and introduction

Co-chairs, Melanie Casey and Mike Behling welcomed all members to the Tax Profession Digital Implementation Group August meeting and confirmed the agenda, noted apologies, and confirmed there were no conflicts of interest.

Action item 20230530_03 was closed with an email that was distributed to members prior to the meeting.

Action item update

20230530_01 – Tax time communication plan

Closed

20230530_02 – BAS Agent access to Superannuation Guarantee accounts

Closed

20230530_03 – Correspondence distributed to clients from the ATO not visible to Tax practitioners

Closed

Members noted this item is key priority for BAS agents and the ATO advised Pay Day Super project includes looking at this function. Members advised they will take this up as an item at the Tax Practitioner Stewardship Group meeting.

2030 Tax Practitioner Experience Strategy

Strategic goal 2 – Safeguard the security of the tax, super and registry data, and IT systems

ATO digital strategy 2022–25

The ATO provided an update on the improving small business performance initiative in the ATO digital strategy, noting:

• what has happened since last consultation about the strategy
• what has changed since the last consultation
  • shift from tax administration
    • Moving towards digitalisation – reporting and lodgments occur at predetermined intervals and payments occur at specific periods or following an automated/human assessment
    • Increased digitalisation – automated reporting and lodgment through business management software. Increased partnership with software developers, introduced government digital identity, validated data sharing, for example pre-fill for lodgments
    • Digitalisation – payment at the time of taxable events or at ‘right-time’, smarter fraud prevention and early detection of non-compliance with support for those unable to be digital.
• Priorities for the next 12 to18 months include:
  • Continuing to deliver on the ATO Digital Roadmap
  • Developing a method to measure effectiveness and efficiency of digitalisation
  • New ato.gov.au website going live in November 2023.

The ATO thanked members for their interest in the release as well as their contributions during consultation, reinforcing the ATO’s commitment to further engage with members in the future.

Action item	20230821_001
Due date	TBA
Responsibility	ATO
Action item details	The ATO to consider providing regular updates showing key projects. What has been delivered and what is coming up. Professional Associations can support the ATO by promoting this to the wider community.

Strengthening digital systems

The ATO advised members we are undertaking a number of initiatives as part of the ongoing focus of strengthening digital systems. From November 2023, a change will be deployed to ATO Online for individuals. For those individuals that access ATO Online for individuals using their myGovID, their future online access will default to myGovID from this date. Information on the change will be presented in ATO Online for individuals and a campaign encouraging users to use myGovID for ATO Online services for Individuals will be delivered in November 2023.

Members discussed

Members advised the ATO to be clear with messaging about this login change.

Member asked if this change is also for Online services for business.

The ATO advised this change impacts only individuals.

Action item	20230821_002
Due date	TBA
Responsibility	ATO
Action item details	Future Tax Profession Digital Implementation Group (TPDIG) agenda item discussing compromised client procedures.

myGovID & RAM update

The ATO provided an update on myGovID, advising majority of digital users are opting to move towards adopting stronger identification with face verification, with an increased use of myGovID.

In the lead up to June 2023, the following enhancements provided users with more visibility and control over their account, with the ability to:

• verify their driver’s license
• view connected devices
• update their name and choose between verified names.

The ATO advised there is work being done to relieve irritants in the RAM system, noting some of the irritants will be challenging to fix.

Members discussed

A member asked if business emails are more secure than private email accounts, such as gmail and hotmail accounts.

• The ATO advised it is better for individuals to set up using private email accounts as when employees move jobs and lose access to a business email account, they are unable to access their myGovID when setting up on a new device. The ATO also advised when using email, it is best to set up multifactor authentication.

A member stated it was unclear who was the leading government agency for the identity program, asking if the ATO was the leading agency.

The ATO advised Department of Finance leads the identity program.

Action item	20230821_003
Due date	TBA
Responsibility	ATO
Action item details	Provide members with link to Department of Finance’s Digital identity program.

Data minimisation and retention

External co-chair and Digital Service Providers Australia and New Zealand (DSPANZ) Secretary presented an update to members on the progress of work being actioned by the DSPANZ Strategic Working Group focus group to investigate retaining and minimising taxation data.

The focus group has surveyed service provider members to identify classifications of tax data, clarify what should be in scope, and gauge views on data formats and retention timeframes.

The agenda item has been raised here to gather insights with the potential to support the development of principles, common across tax practitioners and digital service providers.

As an outcome, the DSPANZ focus group are at the review stage of preparing industry guidance or a ‘white paper’ for DSPs on data retention and minimisation focusing on minimum DSP industry requirements.

Strategic goal 3 – Improve tax performance for clients of tax practitioners

Improving the forms experience and eliminating cheques

The ATO advised it is refreshing the 2024 ATO channel strategy to ensure it remains fit for purpose towards 2030.

Various initiatives are underway to support clients to use preferred channels, including ATO forms improvements, and cheque elimination by 2030.

The ATO advised members that tax and BAS agents and DSPs that wish to be involved in future consultation for channel transition activities to maximise benefits for our clients and the profession and minimise unintended consequences.

Members discussed

A member asked if practitioners are required to end date bank account details.

• The ATO advised its systems take the information supplied in the latest return as the most up to date. If the field on return is blank work is being done on a warning to be provided.

A member advised the ATO that taxpayers are hesitant to update their bank details at the time of lodgment, as they are concerned money will be withdrawn if their return is a debt.

• The ATO advised members of the importance to update bank details, explaining that money will not be withdrawn, and the details will only be used to credit a refunded amount.

Artificial intelligence and ChatGPT

The ATO advised members ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) model which can provide a variety of human conversations, writing and editing, math and reasoning, programming, debugging and more. It is the fastest growing app in history, within 5 days of its release over 1 million users had accessed the app. The app currently has almost 2 billion users with an average of 60 million visits per day in Australia. It is very popular.

A demonstration of ChatGPT live was shown to highlight the functions. Members were warned to check answers obtained from the app and not to use the tool in place of human decision making. The app could help practitioners by assisting them to engage the appropriate resources in an efficient manner. It also has potential to break vague questions into parts to provide a fast response. Large Language Models like ChatGPT, in addition to being used as off the shelf for general purposes, can also be finetuned with one’s domain data to become a domain specialist.

Members discussed

Members were impressed by the minimal cost to generate information quickly but advised they would be cautious to use the technology.

Strategic goal 4– Increase trust and confidence in tax, super and registry systems

Membership refresh

The ATO provided an update on the TPDIG membership refresh, advising:

• process was run to refresh membership of both tax and BAS agents as well as digital service providers (DSP)
• we encouraged applications from both existing and prospective members
• TPDIG expression of interest (EOI) criterion was advertised extensively across DSP and tax and BAS agent newsletters, social media channels, including LinkedIn and ato.gov.au
• ATO chair filmed a promotional video which was released through digital channels prior to the start of the EOI
• the EOI was open for 3 weeks, with applicants needing to provide a written application and curriculum vitae
• merit based process; assessment was conducted by a panel of 3 ATO directors with recommendations made to ATO TPDIG chair
• outcome from the process – 9 successful applicants; 4 DSPs and 5 tax and BAS agents, being a blend of new and existing members
• commencement of new membership will begin in November.

ATO co-chairs thanked long standing exiting members, who have contributed to the group for many years.

All exiting members chose to end their tenure with this group. Exiting members were thanked for their contributions and invited to share their own reflections over their journey as part of this important consultative forum.

Environmental Scan

External co-chair sought input from members, asking to highlight and discuss what is being experienced, trends and items that are currently impacting the tax profession from the digital perspective.

These included:

• myGovID
• Basic users cannot change addresses or bank account details, would like to see a change. Administrators should have the power to authorise others to act on their behalf.
• Getting basics through the process of applications or approval through the ATO is complex.
• Occupation codes issues implications and what steps ATO might put in place to avoid future issues where valid, published, codes are not accepted by the lodgment services.
• Modernisation of Trust Administration Systems – Professional bodies have not been included in any discussions regarding this project. It appears that only developers have been engaged.
• Information around the div 7A prompts in software, it was thought that this kind of prompting would also be good for rental property issues where claims are often error prone.

The secretariat captured these items to help inform future agenda discussions.