Glass
15th January 2015, 07:32 PM
The Australian Taxation Office - ATO (not a part of the Australian government) is requiring that all Australian businesses link their internal accounting software to the tax office. The requirement is that all businesses run real time links to the tax office systems so that the tax office receives all business transactions in real time.
Within two years, there is an expectation that the way businesses interact with the ATO – and by extension, the way they communicate with their agents, and the role those agents play on behalf of their clients – will be totally re-engineered.
The focus will be on real-time reporting, and new accounting systems will transmit data directly to the ATO every time a sale or a purchase is made, every time a payroll transaction goes through, every time an employee is hired or fired.
The days of businesses storing data internally, passing it to their tax or BAS agent to be synthesised into business activity statements or tax returns which are then transmitted to the ATO by the agent are coming to an end.
Instead, data will flow directly to the Tax Office, allowing the pre-filling of forms by the ATO based on exactly the same data transmitted by the business. In short, the systems used by businesses will talk directly to the systems used by the ATO, with data flowing between the two automatically as transactions occur.
Link to article (http://www.digitalfirst.com/2014/07/11/ato-warns-radical-change-ahead-tax-agents/)
This brings to light something not many people comprehend. Even though they think it is their business it actually isn't. It belongs to the government and you are simply administering it for them on the basis of usufruct.
Within two years, there is an expectation that the way businesses interact with the ATO – and by extension, the way they communicate with their agents, and the role those agents play on behalf of their clients – will be totally re-engineered.
The focus will be on real-time reporting, and new accounting systems will transmit data directly to the ATO every time a sale or a purchase is made, every time a payroll transaction goes through, every time an employee is hired or fired.
The days of businesses storing data internally, passing it to their tax or BAS agent to be synthesised into business activity statements or tax returns which are then transmitted to the ATO by the agent are coming to an end.
Instead, data will flow directly to the Tax Office, allowing the pre-filling of forms by the ATO based on exactly the same data transmitted by the business. In short, the systems used by businesses will talk directly to the systems used by the ATO, with data flowing between the two automatically as transactions occur.
Link to article (http://www.digitalfirst.com/2014/07/11/ato-warns-radical-change-ahead-tax-agents/)
This brings to light something not many people comprehend. Even though they think it is their business it actually isn't. It belongs to the government and you are simply administering it for them on the basis of usufruct.