The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) aims to be fully digital by 2030.

ATO commissioner Chris Jordan has outlined the tax office’s new digital strategy.

He says the agency will convert its processes over time so that “nobody gets left behind”.

“The strategy is framed by four pillars and underpinned by five principles. One of the four pillars is a collaboration with our partners, and I really want to emphasise that point today,” Commissioner Jordan said at an accounting software conference in Sydney.

“In the midst of the chaos of the pandemic, we worked with you to deliver over $164 billion in stimulus to Australians when they needed it most.”

He said tax agents and accountants are the ATO’s partners, so its digital plans for 2030 will work with the software tools people already use.

The commissioner says the ATO understands compliance becomes easier when clients can use the systems they already have to engage with the tax office and pay their taxes.

The ATO is seeking to get in line with the OECD’s Tax Administration 3.0, which enables data to be able to flow “from the systems taxpayers already use, to ours, without any extra effort or intervention from them”, Commissioner Jordan said. 

Currently, the tax office is paid after the event that is taxable under law has occurred. Tax Administration 3.0 is more focused on real-time reporting and payment, which would see the tax office get its take more quickly from the taxpayer.

The planned digital revolution will build on electronic invoicing to create an environment where goods and services tax reports are no longer periodic, but can simply aggregate information as transactions occur, leading to real-time reporting and payments of GST.

Commissioner Jordan also said the ATO will consider using existing systems for multiple purposes wherever possible, and redesign systems to have multiple uses in mind.

“JobKeeper is an excellent example of this in action. Together with the Fiscal group in Treasury, we designed the JobKeeper payments around the systems we had already built for STP. This facilitated fast and efficient delivery, and importantly, ensured integrity,” Commissioner Jordan said.

“When an employer applied for JobKeeper and said they had 8 employees, we knew whether that was true or not based on their regular payroll reporting.

“It also meant we could move quickly. We built the system and started making payments within 6 weeks, and 97 per cent of payments were made within 4 business days from application.”