The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has sought to simplify information available to small businesses, developing an online “newsroom” to inform business owners about their tax and super obligations.
Known as the “small business newsroom”, the platform gives business owners the option of signing up to receive information, articles and tax updates as well as important “due dates” that business owners can add to their calendars.
As part of the service, small business owners can choose to stop receive ATO letters in the mail.
“We know small businesses spend all of their time and effort running their businesses. They don’t want to spend time wading through complicated tax information. So we’ve worked with them to create a one-stop newsroom where they could quickly and easily find out about the latest tax and super news,” Steve Vesperman ATO Deputy Commissioner said.
“Now we’d like small businesses to check out and subscribe to the newsroom as well as tell us what they think, so we can keep improving the news service.”
The initiative was launched in a speech by Taxation Commissioner, Chris Jordan, at the national summit of the Council of Small Business of Australia last week. He also lamented the unintended consequences of regulation for small business owners.
Mr Jordan, himself a former small business owner, said it was time to “co-design” solutions to the problem of excessive regulation with the small business sector.
The ATO has recently held so called “co-design” sessions with 24 small business owners and sole traders across a range of industries to simplify tax and superannuation related solutions.
Referring to research showing that tax compliance was costing small to medium sized businesses up to $18.4 million per year, Mr Jordan said it was essential the ATO cut call-waiting times and provide consistent advice to business owners. He also stressed the need to make it easier to find information on the ATO website and reduce the agency’s reliance on technical jargon.
“If we’re going to go digital, we need to get it right,” he said. “ATO systems should fit with natural systems used by businesses and guarantee security and privacy. No-one wants to wait 28 days for a written response.”
Mr Jordan said the ATO needed to provide more personalised, and reliable services using the latest technologies and think about the impact of the ATO’s practices on cash flow for small businesses.
Mr Jordan also referred to a number of other ATO initiatives co-designed with small business to make life easier, including the ATO’s after hours call back service, a new “app” providing information for businesses on super and tax and an online business viability assessment tool to help manage cash flow and debt.
Mr Jordan also announced that a web-chat service would be piloted from October for those clients accessing information via the ATO’s “Small Business Assist” online tool.
The web-chat service will allow small business bowers to have online conversations with ATO customer service officers and seek guidance on particular topics.
“Let me stress that this is just the beginning. We will continue to seek your feedback and ideas as we progress along this journey of reinvention,” Mr Jordan said.
