The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) said today that by late yesterday it had already received 20,000 tax returns from e-tax clients through its electronic lodgement service, double the number for the same period last year.
"Last year around 280,000 people used e-tax and we expect to receive around half a million tax returns electronically this year," said Deputy Tax Commissioner, Jennie Granger.
e-tax, the free software accompaniment to the ATO's TaxPack, lets Australian Internet users lodge their tax returns online.
e-tax competes with several commercial tax software packages used by tax agents such as CeeData, MYOB and HandySoft that contain modules for online lodgement.
According to ATO research, e-tax is not having a significant impact on commercial tax agents.
ATO spokesperson Raelene Vivian said that while the number of people using the package is growing rapidly, most of them belong to the group of 2.2 million Australians who self-lodge already.
Vivian added that the ATO has recognised that some groups have changed their tax lodgement method, but that the ratio of self-lodgers to those who use tax agents has remained relatively static in recent years.
The ATO can process electronic lodgements faster than conventional tax returns. Paper returns take six weeks while their online counterparts take just 14 days
Some have argued that this leaves those without the Internet at a disadvantage.
The ATO said it is addressing this issue. It is currently running trials of a new telephone lodgement system for low-income earners to process what it describes as "simple tax affairs".
The trial service is being offered to 175,000 Australians located in South Australia and Western Australia.
The telephone lodgement service will be able to process returns within a 14-day turnaround period.
Thats fine if you happen to be using a Windows based PC or a Mac with a Windows emulator, but if not, too bad. And should should we trust an MS setup with details of our tax files?