This Strategic Working Group (SWG) meeting was held in Canberra on 23 October 2024.
Key outcomes
Welcome and introduction
Members of the SWG met on 23/10/2024. ATO Chair Michael Rowell and Industry co-chair Matthew Prouse welcomed members and guests to the final SWG meeting for 2024.
Members were given an update on open action items.
Meet our recently appointed Assistant Commissioner – Fawad Abro
Fawad Abro introduced himself as the Assistant Commissioner for Digital Integration, Invoicing and Partnerships, a newly formed branch which incorporates DWIS, DPO and E-invoicing.
Fawad highlighted the benefits of bringing together these three capabilities, expressing his passion for Tax 3.0 and creating capacity to focus on the future.
ATOs Digital Strategy, Government direction on Fraud and Digital Identity
Digital Strategy
The ATOs Digital Strategy was developed to create a narrative around digitalisation and underpins the ATOs aspiration to become fully digitalised by 2030.In recent years, ATOs investment pipeline has been made up of policy and resilience activities creating ongoing capacity pressures. To mitigate this, there is a need to be strategic and to leverage opportunities when delivering non-discretionary work.
Key elements of the current digital strategy still resonate. However, feedback on wholesale is clear – it needs to evolve to meet the needs of the market, support digitalisation where limited digital services exist, and address the changing payments landscape.
Digital Identity
Expansion of the Australian Government Digital ID System (AGDIS) will commence when the Digital ID Bill goes live on 1 December 2024. The Bill allows AGDIS to be used more broadly in the community, with expansion phased over two years.
Payday Super
The Department of Treasury factsheet provides guardrails that will be used to shape the system. Some detail won’t be clear until draft legislation is available later this year or early 2025.
Super Guarantee charge (SGC) will change significantly to be reflective of employer circumstances. The Small Business Super Clearing House (SBSCH) will be shut down from 1 July 2026. ATO will support awareness of alternate channels for clearing house services prior to 1 July 2026.
Small Business Future Tax Administration (SBFTA)
The SBFTA program has been mapped out over 3 horizons. Horizon 1 focuses on what incremental changes can be made within the current legislative and systems framework, and includes:
- Incentivising monthly GST reporting.
- Exploring self-service options for businesses to assess if they are getting it right / on track before lodging.
- Working with DSPs to offer PAYGI guidance in software.
- Working through feedback from the Div7A pilot around use cases to embed rules into software.
Commissioner’s opening remarks and group discussion
The Commissioner opened with a summary of the evolution of tax throughout his career in the public service – from paper and calculators to email and applications. He recognised the complexity of the current tax system, particularly for small businesses, and acknowledged the importance of DSPs in providing solutions to reduce that complexity.
He acknowledged challenges with influencing legislative change and managing whole of government initiatives, noting the importance of clearly defining objectives and communicating with stakeholders in a way that resonates.
The Commissioner noted his commitment to listen to stakeholders, understand, and work towards mutually beneficial outcomes.
DSPs delivering change in natural business systems
DSPs need up to 4 years lead-time to develop and implement a new service or initiative. Cyclical compliance changes are included as placeholders. However, Australian Budget announcements do not align with most DSP planning cycles, making it difficult to ensure sufficient capacity is reserved on delivery schedules.
Some DSPs are also transitioning from desktop to cloud, increasing complexity and creating delays to work on their roadmaps.
Compromised identity and online access strength
From October 2023 users are locked into using the highest identity strength we have against their record when they access ATO Online. If someone tries to log in with a lower identity strength, they will be blocked from accessing the account.
Tax practitioners have been asked to encourage clients to uplift their digital identity strength to Strong (IP3) and then log in to Online Services using the stronger credential.
Enhancing Cyber Security – a collaborative approach
A Cyber workshop was held at the June SWG to collect ideas on leveraging the DSP-customer relationship to support cyber security enhancements. From 101 post-it notes, eight key themes were identified.
- DSPs as a communication channel to end users
- Threat intelligence sharing (ATO to liaise with Australian Cyber Security Centre)
- Education and training to DSPs and end users to foster enhanced security practices
- Collaboration – Purposeful, tailored security-based engagement
- Strengthening the Operational Security Framework (OSF)
- DSP use of TDIF/myGovID (now myID) in the machine-to-machine environment
- Enhance DSP incident response processes (further work is required to define an ‘incident’).
- Regulatory alignment with other agencies/industries, locally and globally, to ensure a consistent approach to cyber security regulation
DPO will meet with DSPANZ representatives regularly to explore uplifting OSF requirements. This will not be a full review like we have done in the past and changes will be put forward for consultation.
Activity Statement (AS) Remediation
Members were given an overview of the options considered to resolve AS2023 service issues. Agreement was reached to remediate AS2023 in XML based on AS2009 schema.
A working group has been established to ensure the service is meeting DSP requirements.
Next meeting dates
Planning for 2025 is underway with member details and meeting dates to be confirmed early in the new year.
If you have any questions, contact the secretariat by email at DPO@ato.gov.au or raise a ticket in the DSP service desk.
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