{"id":44478,"date":"2023-10-20T15:36:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/ato-outages-still-not-fixed-this-is-an-absolute-joke-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:36:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:36:18","slug":"ato-outages-still-not-fixed-this-is-an-absolute-joke-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/ato-outages-still-not-fixed-this-is-an-absolute-joke-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"ATO outages still not fixed: “This is an absolute joke” – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tax<\/div>\n

Confused business owners and tax professionals continue to express frustration with the Australian Taxation Office, with complaints of phone help lines dropping out as online systems continue to be restored after a massive outage 10 days ago.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, December 11, the ATO experienced a major outage of its website and online tax lodgement services, including the tax agent portal, business portal and Australian Business Register site.<\/p>\n

Technicians spent the following days working with the tax office\u2019s storage hardware provider Hewlett Packard to restore data, systems and platform software from backups.<\/p>\n

Read more: Calls for compensation for SMEs as ATO portal outage leaves workers \u201ccolouring in\u201d while waiting for system to return<\/strong><\/p>\n

Services slowly came back online last week, but the Australian Business Register only achieved \u201climited functionality\u201d on Tuesday. The ABR platform is used by businesses, governments and individuals to apply for Australian Business Numbers and update business details.<\/p>\n

The ATO has repeatedly told the Australian public that no individual or business will be disadvantaged by the outages. The deadline for lodging monthly Business Activity Statements (BAS) is today, but clients are now being told there will be no penalties or interest for failing to lodge before January 10, 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage lodgment and payment of the November monthly Business Activity Statement on time. However, anyone experiencing difficulties with lodging or making payments due to our system outages will not be subject to penalties, interest or follow-up action providing lodgment and payment is made by 10 January 2017.<\/p>\n

These concessions will be automatically applicable without taxpayers, agents or their advisors contacting the ATO,\u201d said ATO chief information officer Ramez Katf in a statement last night.<\/p>\n

Several accountants and tax agents have told SmartCompany<\/em> last week they are now well behind on completing client work due to last week\u2019s outage. It appears difficulties are continuing, with business owners continuing to complain of slow services or the inability to complete some tasks just two days out from the ATO\u2019s Christmas shutdown.<\/p>\n

Some businesses have reported that ATO phone lines either keep them on hold for an extended period or dropped out completely.<\/p>\n

When SmartCompany<\/em> tried to phone the general business information line this morning, it initially reported that the service was unavailable due to a technical difficulty. It was online and placing callers in a queue at 9:30am.<\/p>\n