JUST as the nation’s top tax collector Michael D’Ascenzo announced aggressive new targets to get people to lodge returns electronics, the Australian Taxation Office says it has been hit by Microsoft Windows Vista compatibility problems.
The ATO has been one of the most advanced Federal departments in developing and deploying web applications and web services to simplify tax compliance for both individuals and businesses – largely through its $450 million Change Program.
Last year, 90 per cent of taxpayers lodged returns electronically, and as Tax Commissioner Mr D’Ascenzo had set a target for this year of boosting electronic returns to 95 per cent of taxpayers.
But the target – set last month – has already been given a setback with the ATO reporting a series of problems for both individual taxpayers and businesses in getting Microsoft’s new Windows Vista applications to work with its back office systems.
The Vista problems are ironic for the ATO, which has worked hand-in-glove with Microsoft on its online services and web services back-end systems for the past five years.
The ATO was one of the first major users to throw its weight behind Microsoft’s .NET architecture as a Beta customer, and Microsoft used Tax as a global reference site in the early days of .Net release.
The ATO has now published the Vista problems on its website. The problems relate largely to accessing and updating electronic forms.
The ATO said:
· electronic forms are placed in a temporary location and will be automatically erased by Windows Vista. This means the user could lose all of their saved electronic forms
· The ATO record-keeping evaluation tool can still be used with Vista, but users will be unable to access the help application,
· The personal tax record keep will work with Vista, but only with reduced useability – and some text can become scrambled
· When using the facilitated lodgement tools with Vista the users’ portal activity statement will not be pre-populated with their information.
The ATO has issued work-arounds for most of the problems and said that Microsoft had been made aware of the issues.
Despite the issues, Mr D’Ascenzo told a conference of tax specialists at Queensland University last month that the Change Program was on track, and that the change program Release 2 work – where it implemented Siebel Case Management and Work Management systems had been a resounding success.
The ATO’s independent assurer Cap Gemini said the project was the largest Siebel case management roll out anywhere in the world.
“This has been a major undertaking,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.
For more Web Applications news click here.
The ATO has been one of the most advanced Federal departments in developing and deploying web applications and web services to simplify tax compliance for both individuals and businesses – largely through its $450 million Change Program.
Last year, 90 per cent of taxpayers lodged returns electronically, and as Tax Commissioner Mr D’Ascenzo had set a target for this year of boosting electronic returns to 95 per cent of taxpayers.
But the target – set last month – has already been given a setback with the ATO reporting a series of problems for both individual taxpayers and businesses in getting Microsoft’s new Windows Vista applications to work with its back office systems.
The Vista problems are ironic for the ATO, which has worked hand-in-glove with Microsoft on its online services and web services back-end systems for the past five years.
The ATO was one of the first major users to throw its weight behind Microsoft’s .NET architecture as a Beta customer, and Microsoft used Tax as a global reference site in the early days of .Net release.
The ATO has now published the Vista problems on its website. The problems relate largely to accessing and updating electronic forms.
The ATO said:
· electronic forms are placed in a temporary location and will be automatically erased by Windows Vista. This means the user could lose all of their saved electronic forms
· The ATO record-keeping evaluation tool can still be used with Vista, but users will be unable to access the help application,
· The personal tax record keep will work with Vista, but only with reduced useability – and some text can become scrambled
· When using the facilitated lodgement tools with Vista the users’ portal activity statement will not be pre-populated with their information.
The ATO has issued work-arounds for most of the problems and said that Microsoft had been made aware of the issues.
Despite the issues, Mr D’Ascenzo told a conference of tax specialists at Queensland University last month that the Change Program was on track, and that the change program Release 2 work – where it implemented Siebel Case Management and Work Management systems had been a resounding success.
The ATO’s independent assurer Cap Gemini said the project was the largest Siebel case management roll out anywhere in the world.
“This has been a major undertaking,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.
For more Web Applications news click here.
