(Australia) eTax 2015

[marty998]

Can't find it lol. Doesn't seem to be on the ATO website yet. No loss, I think I have to wait till the end of August anyway for Vanguard tax statements. Downside of owning a Fund instead of straight shares.

Apparently 2015 will be the last version of eTax. After 16 years the ATO is moving to a web based system called myTax.

Hopefully myTax will have the same functionality (basic things like being able to save inputs and come back later to change/amend, before lodging). Don't want to use a system that forces me to have everything in hand and complete the return in a single sitting.

[deborah]

myTax was available for the first time last year, and I seem to remember glowing reports about it. However, I think it was also more basic in that there were some things that you could claim for in eTax but not in myTax, so I ended up using eTax when I did my parents' returns rather than myTax, but that may just have been because it was the first year it was available.

[johnnydoe]

You couldn't use MyTax if you had an investment property (not sure about shares), it was very basic but a lot quicker to use if all you had was work income and related deductions.

[alsoknownasDean]

Yeah I used myTax last year for my return. Compared to horrible clunky eTax, it was so much better.

I remember that the only reason I even used to have a Windows VM was to run eTax.

[marty998]

eTax for Mac was only just released a couple of years ago.

I didn't mind it, always found it quite easy to use, and thorough. Hard to miss anything because it prompted you to check all items.

[deborah]

Evidently myTax has extra functionality this year, and will be the full box-and-dice next year http://www.itnews.com.au/News/401902,ato-to-kill-off-e-tax.aspx

[deborah]

Well, according to the ABC, 24,000 people have ALREADY filed their online tax return!

[marty998]

found it! here it is:

https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Lodging-your-tax-return/In-detail/e-tax-help/#Usingetax

theres a link on the page: online pre-lodgement questionnaire.

You have to answer 2 questions and then it will determine whether you should you myTax or eTax.

Only if you don't satisfy the requirements for myTax will it let you download eTax. Ticking rental income or capital gains will send you to the eTax download screen.

Interesting that they are trying to force you onto myTax, they're not hanging around for people to voluntarily change over.

[deborah]

I have to use eTax - I had to answer 4 questions.

[Mark31]

I’m so pleased to hear this will be the last e-tax!

I hate it so much I went through a big rigmarole to get paper forms last year.

They didn’t allow my partner to do a paper return though, it was either e-tax or an accountant, so I still got some of the pain.

[marty998]

why why why Mark? I think it's brilliant...

[Anatidae V]

why why why Mark? I think it's brilliant...

+1 I thought it was great to use, but then my tax returns have been very simple so far.

[marty998]

fair enough... I didn't find that it populated last year's figures, except for PY capital losses. It populated descriptions for things like work related deductions and donations - I guess it was trying to be helpful in reminding you what you claimed last year and give a hint so you don't forget to claim those things this year.

Whole of tax return view is in the "view tax estimate" screen, and you can then go to the next screen and print the return. I always cycle back and forth between them several times before lodging.

The errors that come up are usually for things that you must answer regardless of whether you have the item or not (such as reportable fringe benefits or reportable (salary sacrificed) super contributions. This is so thresholds for Medicare Levy Surcharge can be worked out accurately, as well as the income tests that centrelink use for any welfare or family tax benefit.

I guess it helps that I am a trained accountant who is familiar with the tax returns in general. I can see how the format of it seems to follow the sort of checklist a tax practitioner would mentally run through when doing a tax return.

Obviously therefore it infuriates the non-tax accountant type person or personality type :)

[deborah]

If you ask it to use the previous year's stuff, it populates it with last year's figures. If you ask it to populate from what the tax office have received it ALSO populates with this year's figures. I sort-of like having both, because then I know that everything is there. It gets a bit wearing deleting the extra lines though!

[mrcheese]

I found e-tax this year to be back to its usual excellent self. Last year's version was awful. And I do still hate MyGov anything.
I ended up with a bill of around $75 and its in effect the last shred of HECS (I was hoping to be at zero) can anyone tell me when/how they apply the indexation? I made the lump sum repayment in December.

[potm]

Indexation is applied on the first of June, conviniently before you can do your tax returns and have the compulsary payments factored in to reduce the amount. To be fair though, it doesn't get indexed for something like 12-18 months after you first incurred the debt.

[Anatidae V]

We are using both in our household this year. I'm using MyTax and SO has to use eTax. I logged on to check out MyTax today. I prefer looking at all the options, even though 99% don't apply to me, while MyTax just says "here's the answer". Definitely simple to use. I can see it gently encouraging people to forget about deductions they should make because its so simple and doesn't require you to step through each part. Maybe I'm just lazy. I will be interested to see how SO goes with this year's version of eTax.

[alsoknownasDean]

I've done a trial run with myTax, and because I'll have to pay about $800 (thanks HECS), I'm in no hurry to lodge it. I'll try and make a bit of interest off it before I lodge and hand it over :)

Still waiting for one of the funds to send the details to the ATO, but it's not that hard to just enter it manually.

Does the 2015 version of eTax still feel like it belongs in the Windows 95 days?

[Astatine]

I'm a Luddite (in part cos I don't trust my laptop to be 100% clear of malware, despite my use of AVG - in risk management terms, the chances are low, consequences potentially major). So I'm still using ye olde paper forms. The ATO is unsubtle in trying very hard to push me to do it all online but I have resisted thus far, and figure I'm helping in a tiny way those who can't afford internet access or don't have the right skillset continue to have access to paper forms. The slowest part of doing my tax is waiting for DH to do his so I can put his taxable income on my form. He uses eTax. He reckons it's been pretty simple to use for the past few years.

[Anatidae V]

Waiting for SO to do his tax return is always the slowest part of mine as well.

[stripey]

I had to use eTax (managed funds and some sole trader items).

It's within the realm of my non-financially-savvy self to use but it's a bit clunky. Some of the population with last year's figures threw up errors that took a fair bit of time to sort through. There was at least one section that was not scrolled through but appeared in the left-hand navigation frame.

I understand why the ATO would be keen to offer MyTax exclusively because apparently it's a webapp (correct me if I'm wrong here) which will make compatibility issues a lot less troublesome. Once upon a time getting eTax working when I was running a Linux box was a little bit of a hassle as I had to set up an emulator, and the only other personal computer I had access to was a Mac, and eTax for Mac wasn't a thing yet.

Problem is, my internet connection is a little unreliable and I like being able to use a program offline...

(I also nearly got a $10k refund. Heh. Turns out I had way too much tax witheld (plus quite a few deductions). Whenever I got any penalty rates, it would push my pay for that fortnight period up into the next tax bracket, and I would also get more witheld for compulsory HECS payments. I don't think it's worth putting in a PAYG variation though because penalties are so incredibly lumpy and sporadic it's too hard to predict.)