Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) has lodged a submission to the Tax Ombudsman (TO - formerly known as the Inspector-General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman) regarding its systematic review of the effectiveness of the ATO’s registered agent phone line (ATO phone line).

CA ANZ members have been expressing concern about the quality of service and consistency in advice when using the ATO phone line. This includes long wait times, difficulties in becoming connected to an ATO officer who has the required knowledge and expertise to answer questions, receiving inconsistent or incorrect information and inconsistent attitudes of ATO officers. 

CA ANZ is pleased that the TO has listened to concerns expressed by CA ANZ and our members about the ATO phone line and initiated this review. Thanks to those members who have contributed to the CA ANZ submission and/or directly responded to the TO about this matter.  

Urgent improvements to the agents phone line and online services for agents are needed to help tax agents ensure that their clients tax matters are resolved efficiently and at a low cost 

Suggested improvements called for in the submission regarding the phone line include:  

• implementing a call back service and/or booking service 
• reviewing ATO recruitment, training and retention of staff 
• reviewing the effectiveness of the fast key codes and ensure that staff with appropriate expertise are the recipients of the calls 
• reviewing the effectiveness of scripts 
• providing greater information on the ATO website or through law administration practice statements about ATO procedures, especially in relation to the remission of the general interest charge, the determination of credit worthiness and debt collection procedures 
• implementing a simple two-way identification and verification system  
• providing a dedicated phone line for client agent linking queries 

What tax practitioners really need is for Online Services for Agents (OSFA) to be more user friendly. Tax practitioners want to use OSFA, which unlike the phone line is continually available, to resolve issues. But limitations such as lack of key data, difficulty generating reports, lack of real time processing/updates, insufficient details, practice mail being a one-way mechanism and lack of a chat function mean that OSFA cannot met the needs of a tax practitioner.  

The submission urges the TO to conduct a separate review into OSFA to improve its accessibility, usefulness and ease of use.