BAS Seminar

Key messages – Stopping paper activity statements for electronic lodgers

  • Each year the ATO sends out over 4.1 million paper activity statements which aresubsequently lodged electronically.
  • From 1 July this year we plan to stop issuing paper activity statements to clients or their representatives where the first lodgment after the change is lodged via an electronic channel.
  • We will continue to send paper activity statements for the following form types because these cannot currently be despatched electronically:

–Q (Annual GST report)

–R (Quarterly PAYG instalment notice)

–S (Quarterly GST instalment notice)

–T (Quarterly GST and PAYG instalment notice)

  • We will also continue to send paper activity statements for other form types if the client does not have an active ABN.

The following sections outline the key elements of a user experience for different lodgment channels.

User experience when using business accounting software (self-lodgment)

  • For clients using business accounting software to lodge activity statements (so lodgment is coming to the ATO via the Business Portal, SBR or ECI) these changes are in line with what already occurs if a statement is lodged via these channels with one key difference

–currentlyif we do not have a client’s email address recorded against their activity statement role, we do not stop the paper activity statement issuing.

–from 1 July we willstop sending the paper regardless of whether we have an email address captured or not.

  • So the first electronic lodgment that a client makes after 1 July will trigger a change to the client’s record so that the next activity statement generated will not be sent as paper.
  • After this initial electronic lodgment the next activity statement will be made available to the client in the Business Portal, SBR and ECI. For example, as the client can use their AUSkey for any of these channels, they can lodge via the portal and then collect the next activity statement using SBR-enabled software or ECI.
  • Clients can expect to be able to accesstheir activity statement approximately seven days after the generate date. Information about generate dates is published on ato.gov.au.
  • An email notification will be sent if we have an email address recorded against the client’s activity statement role.

User experience when using ELS enabled software (tax agent lodgment)

  • Where the first electronic lodgment after 1 July is via ELS enabled software, in most scenarios the clients next activity statement will not be sent as paper – it will be delivered to the agents ‘ELS mailbox’ (there are some exclusions – refer below).

So where the paper activity statement may once have been delivered directly to the client, it will now be delivered to the agent via ELS.

  • Activity statements delivered to an agent’s ELS mailbox will also be available in the portals, through SBR or ECI - so an agent can still lodge via these channels even if they receive the statement via ELS. A client can also access the activity statement if they need to (they require an AUSkey to use the Business Portal).
  • The ATO will not send a separate notification to ELS receivers advising that the activity statement is available i.e. the agent/client will not receive an email.
  • As this change will occur automatically, based on an ELS lodgment, the agent will not need to complete a Client update transaction to receive the activity statement via the ELS mailbox.

The next points are all as per current ELS functionality, however it will be new for some agents as they have not been using ELS to receive activity statements:

  • An agent must use their primary ELS gateway to receive their clients' activity statements.
  • The activity statements will be pre-populated with personalised information.
  • Agents can expect to receive activity statements in their ELS mailbox approximately seven days after the generate date.
  • Activity statements sent to a tax agent's ELS mailbox should be downloaded from the ELS within 16days – after that time, any uncollected activity statements will be automatically moved to the ‘Old mailbox’ facility in the ELS.
  • Uncollected activity statements will remain in the ‘Old mailbox’ until the next batch of uncollected activity statements are moved from their ELS mailbox. Any existing uncollected activity statements in the 'Old mailbox' will subsequently be overwritten.

There will be some scenarios when an ELS lodgment will not trigger the paper to stop:

–where another agent represents the client for activity statement purposes

–if the agent is enrolled for ELS as a preparer – preparers are not able to receive activity statements via ELS.

–where the practice operates with multiple ELS approval numbers – a tax agent using one tax agent number may operate with multiple ELS approval numbers, so employees can lodge data from various locations. However, reports from us, containing clients' activity statements, can only be sent to the primary transmitter number for the practice.

User experience when using ‘practitioner’ SBR enabled software (practitioner lodgment)

  • The experience for practitioners using SBR enabled software will be the same as the experience for clients using business accounting software.
  • So the first SBR enabled lodgment that a practitioner makes after 1 July this year will trigger a change to the clients record so that the next activity statement generated will not be sent as paper
  • The practitioner or client will get an email if we have a correct and current email address captured against the clients activity statement role. The email address can be either the practitioners or the clients.
  • After the initial electronic lodgment the next activity statement will be made available in the Portals, SBR and ECI. For example, as a practitioner can use their AUSkey for any of these channels, they can lodge via SBR enabled software and then access and lodge the next activity statement via the Portal.
  • The activity statements are available in the electronic channels approximately seven days after the generate date. Information about generate dates is published on ato.gov.au.

Changing from one lodgment channel to another

  • There cannot be a concurrent election to receive activity statements via ELS and another channel – so if the first lodgment after 1 July is via ELS and then at a later date the agent/client wants to shift to the ‘portal/SBR/ECI’ experience’ (i.e. not have the activity statement delivered via ELS and receive an email notification instead) they will need to contact the ATO to trigger this change. The same logic applies when moving from portal/SBR/ECI to receiving via ELS.

NB: We will workwith the ELS2SBR project team to develop a strategy to manage the shift from ELS to SBR as the transition ramps up.

Feedback from practitioners

  • Following a pilot that was conducted last year and since the commencement of communications in April to support this change, the following feedback has been captured and may be of interest to software providers:

–In relation to locating activity statements in ELS:

  • Some agents have advised that they lodge electronically yet continue to receive paper as they were unsure when setting up ELS of how to use it to receive activity statements –so they keep paper just to be safe.
  • Some agents did not even realise that they could receive activity statements electronically via ELS
  • Further to this, agents using ELS wanted a better understanding of how it works for receiving activity statements–an agent in the pilot highlighted that they did not fully understand how to receive/find activity statements in ELS which resulted in a difficult pilot experience. The agent highlighted that the different ‘software products’ call the 'ELS mailbox' a different name, for example it may be called ‘ATO reports’.

–Agents have continued to receive the paper due to a lack of awareness and understanding of the reporting functions available and due to the lengthy service standard for the delivery of reports (three days). So they use the paper to reconcile their lodgment process rather than rely on ELS reports.

–Agents are unsure (and therefore concerned) of what information will be provided in the ‘ELS version’ of the activity statement and what it will look like.

–Some agents currently receive the paper activity statement, scan it to create a work item that can then be used to allocate work within the practice – so other than the initial scanning the paper is not used.

–One agent posed the following question: Is the ELS mail box something that is checked by the practice's tax software and requires someone to keep an eye out for it or does/can it go to the practice's email address registered with the ATO/TPB and so be picked up by Outlook etc automatically?

Inconsistent lodgment patterns

Practitioners have identified that client’s often lodge their own monthly activity statements via paper while the practitioner lodges the quarterly statement electronically. We will run a report in early June to identify these clients and exclude them from the change. A broadcast has been sent to the practitioners who represent these clients to make them aware that they will be excluded.

Over the coming months we will work with this client group to shift them to electronic lodgment of their monthly activity statements.