The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has implemented new laws to increase security with the client-to-agent linking process for all entities with an ABN, excluding sole traders or individual taxpayers. The new law commences from 13th November 2023, for the purpose of protecting all parties against identity theft.
This measure involves the client nominating an agent for online services, as an extra authorisation step, to prepare income tax returns, Fringe Benefits Tax returns, BAS returns and more.
Note, however, existing business clients are not affected if their existing arrangements have not changed.
The entities that are included are:
- Companies, including strata title bodies.
- Partnerships
- Trusts
- Not-for-profits
- Joint Ventures
- Cooperatives
- Self-managed superannuation funds
- APRA-regulated superannuation funds
What to do:
The client must set up their MyGovID, which is different to MyGov, and link this to their ABN.
The client must then nominate their agent via the Online Services for business, once they have received, from their agent, the registered agent number. The client, then, must notify their agent once they have completed this nomination process.
At Era Tax we will provide you, as the business owner, with the client-agent linking steps and guide you through the process. Once this has been done, Era Tax can help you with your tax obligations and tax related business needs .