Many might have lodged Australian tax returns using ‘Etax’ software. It is no longer available from 2016 onwards, replaced by a cloud based ‘MyTax’ software. In an era of widespread hacking, are you more comfortable in using ‘My Tax’ than Etax?
Let me answer that as an Etax user for a long time. What ATO (Australian Taxation Office) did to migrate Etax users to Mytax is going to be explained as best as possible. I lodged a complaint about the deficiencies of MyTax compared to Etax. They opened a case for me, but I cannot share all the case details as it is deemed personal to me by ATO. I think otherwise – as a complaint lodged by a Australian Tax payer to be shared with all other tax payers.
My complaints were based on the things I could do with Etax, but no longer can do with MyTax. I also raised other privacy and identity theft issues that will fall squarely upon me to resolve it as ATO may not claim responsibility or may find ways to avoid the responsibility.
Firstly, MyTax does not allow offline mode of operation. With Etax, the only times I am connected to the internet was at the time downloading the software and finally lodging it online. There could be instances where Etax will ask me to check the ATO website for updates, but it will be right at the start of lodging a return.
Secondly, MyTax does not allow me to take a print of the tax return before lodging. It is important and will be lot easier for me to go over the tax returns on paper before committing to lodging.
Thirdly, MyTax is part of the linking that I must do with an overarching ‘MyGov’ login that frightens me so much because of its ‘one username and one password’ access philosophy that could give access to all my tax, personal, financial and medical details to any hacker. The annoying bit is that there is no way to do any business with the government on those fronts in any other way.
Fourthly, MyTax needs you to be logged in till you finish with a temporary save or a final lodgment. With temporary save, for whatever reason the connection drops off, all the keyed in entries are lost because you did not do a save. No so with Etax!
MyTax look and feel is not same as Etax. Even though there is no room to complain on this front, ATO has let all Etax uses down by not allowing them comment on MyTax commissioning before it could decommission Etax. Those who have used Etax know very well that it is a great software with all the help built-in to help the tax lodgment at every step of the way.
I cannot share every comment that I received from ATO when I got a call today from ATO regarding my complaint on MyTax. I did not get a satisfactory answer from ATO on why it could claim MyTax is better than Etax on its website when some major functionalities of Etax are not taken care of.
I was told that it was in ATO blueprint that Etax will be replaced with MyTax eventually and the decision was taken in 2014. However, either the 2014 or 2015 versions of Etax did not alert the users about this eventuality. When so much help had been crammed into Etax, I questioned why ATO did not put a simple alert when the software is opened for lodgment. ATO claims that it is on their website when we go there to download the software. ATO cannot assume that those who are going to use Etax for lodging tax returns are the ones downloading it.
I was given workaround solutions to do what I was doing in Etax to do the same in MyTax and the changes that are planned for 2017. There was no parallel online lodgment facilities till MyTax is stabilized for Etax users. The only option for them is to go back to paper lodgment. This is what I hear from ATO after using Etax for 10+ years – go back to paper! Go back to 19th century!
What could be done for this migration to work better?
- I would not have surveyed only the MyTax users for functionality without ratifying the same with Etax users.
- I would have given an option for Etax users to use Etax as before if they are not happy with MyTax, but asked them to lodge the returns manually.
- I would have given Etax users an option to do a dry run without compromising their personal details, till they are ready to lodge – meaning I would not have asked any of the personal details in the beginning, but only in the end.
- I would have send email and SMS alerts regarding the impending decommissioning of Etax well before the tax year end.
- I would not assume that Etax users use website as frequently as MyTax users and would have taken all necessary steps to confirm that Etax users are comfortable in using MyTax to lodge returns.
No need to go back to paper just because we can’t go to cloud properly! Right?