Workers in the crosshairs after ATO site error

On Monday, many struggling taxpayers went to their MyGov accounts to finally access tax breaks and received a message saying: “Hold on! You’re in a queue.”

Shadow government services minister Paul Fletcher has criticised the Labour government’s lack of foresight, saying the party was prioritising appearances over service delivery.

“Many Australians are going through difficult times and need support more than ever to cope with the cost of living. Labor should have anticipated high demand today and planned accordingly,” Mr Fletcher told SkyNews.com.au.

“It’s a huge own goal.

“The Albanian government has moved away from reality when it comes to digital transformation projects and clearly prefers to focus on propaganda rather than providing good customer service. »

The ATO’s error comes after months of attempts by Labor to tout its “substantial” cost of living measures.

From July 1, most Australians will benefit from government changes to stage three tax cuts, minimum wage increases, energy rebates and superannuation guarantee increases .

Tax cuts have been a cornerstone of the government’s message since the changes were passed on February 27, with desperate taxpayers set to save around $1,880 on average.

Another government measure – changing the HEC indexation and postponing it retroactively to June 2023 – will likely appear in some Australians’ tax returns.

More than nine million Australians are expected to receive a tax return, with the average recipient pocketing $1,288, according to Finder.

But with more than 75 per cent of Australians in a dire financial situation – according to the Consumer Sentiment Tracker – they simply can’t access help.

According to the ATO, the tax authority is “currently managing the number of people who can log in”.

Reports of problems with the MyGov service first emerged at 9 a.m. Monday, according to the website Downdetector, which tracks online outages.

After prolonged delays and even a complete malfunction for most of Monday, the portal finally recovered later in the evening.

Since the beginning of the year, the government has desperately tried to increase its cost-of-living relief measures to distract from the disastrous failure on immigration, persistent inflation and threats from its left flank over war in Gaza.

Senior Cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, said the relief package amounted to “real and substantial help” that would not worsen inflation problems.

The government even allocated $40 million in public funds to an advertising campaign on the Stage 3 tax cuts that passed with bipartisan support in February.

Although the tax cut changes do not require access to the ATO website as they are automatically applied from July 1, the ATO outage highlighted the apparent lack of anticipation of the number of Australians who would be desperate to file their tax return on day one to speed up. track funds.

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Although hordes of people were unable to access the government’s “practical measures” on Monday, the prime minister and a host of leading MPs took advantage of question period to congratulate each other.

“(It’s) not just a tax cut for every taxpayer, nor a pay rise for 2.6 million workers who are currently receiving paid salaries,” Albanese said.

“Because we want Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers echoed the Prime Minister’s announcement of long-awaited cost of living relief measures while the website was down.

“From today, every household will be entitled to an energy bill,” he said during Monday’s question session.

“There will be a pay rise for millions of workers on bonuses. Medicines will be cheaper and there will be two extra weeks of paid parental leave. That’s how we can reduce the cost of living, not with expensive nuclear reactors in 15 years.”

“Cost of living assistance today is substantial, meaningful and responsible. It is cost of living assistance that meets people’s needs and needs.

“This is how we ensure that people earn more and keep more of what they have, because when people are under pressure and because many people are under pressure, more help is on the way today.”

But accessing much-needed tax returns was not an option for the many Australians looking to get more money in their pockets.

Mark Chapman, director of tax communications at H&R Block, called the tech crash “disappointing” because it was “entirely predictable” that millions of Australians would seek to reap the benefits of more money in their pockets.

“With thousands of Australians wanting to go online to lodge their tax returns (and potentially get a tax refund), it is disappointing that the ATO’s systems have not been able to cope with this entirely predictable demand,” Mr Chapman told SkyNews.com.

“That being said, tax professionals like H&R Block are operating as normal, so if you can’t log into MyTax, you can still consider hiring a tax agent to file your return. »

Disgruntled taxpayers have taken to social media to express their frustration at the website’s poor performance amid increased demand.

“Mygov (sic) is a complete mess,” said one taxpayer.

“There is now a virtual queue just to get on the @ato_gov_au website. The government IT infrastructure is a joke. Demand is predictable so plan ahead and ramp it up and be ready for it, dammit!” wrote one former Twitter user, X.

Another chastised the bureaucratic process after hours of waiting with the “Wait!” » page preventing them from accessing the tax office website.

“I give up. This is ridiculous,” wrote the X user.

“How can making people wait in an imaginary queue “ensure the best experience”? Do they use a museum-quality server for the tax office?

“They should probably be able to handle some Internet traffic.”

More than 13 million Australians are set to benefit from Labor’s tax cut, with Australians pocketing between $350 and $4,500 more this year depending on their income bracket.

Originally, the stage three cuts would have given people earning $200,000 or more a reduction of $9,075 a year, about double the relief provided in the amended version.

The new individual tax thresholds for 2024-25 will see a decrease in the rate for those earning up to $45,000 and $135,000, with the benchmark threshold increased by $120,000.

Additionally, for those earning between $135,001 and $190,000, the tax rate will remain the same at 37 percent, although the threshold has been raised by $180,000.

Additionally, a rate of 45 percent will now apply to $190,000, instead of $180,000.

The ATO told SkyNews.com.au it had activated the ATO online waiting room to handle the large influx of taxpayers seeking to access the tax office’s online services during tax season.

This is to “manage user traffic and ensure system performance for ATO’s online users,” an ATO spokesperson said.

“The ATO’s online waiting room has been in place since April 2020 and is a tool to ensure continuity of service during conditions of excessive demand or unforeseen events affecting system performance.”