Issue 615, 15 December 2016
In this issue:
- Australian Taxation Office systems outage – update
Australian Taxation Office systems outage – update
As you may be aware, all of the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) information technology systems have been unavailable since Sunday 11 December.
The latest update from the ATO with respect to their outage was provided by means of a media release today at 10.00am.
The ato.gov.au website has been live since yesterday afternoon. The ATO has advised it has continued to work around the clock to bring their core systems back online and is currently focusing its efforts towards bringing the tax agent portal back online.
From a superannuation perspective:
- ASFA believes from the ATO that their current ‘best estimate’ is that superannuation related systems will become available by late Friday 16 December
- the Gateway Network Governance Body (GNGB) has set up daily meetings to discuss a ‘ramp-up’ strategy for when systems are back up
- the ATO is working closely with industry on plans to mitigate disruption when services resume, including dealing with system backlogs. It is also keeping APRA informed of developments and the effect on funds
- the ATO has indicated it has no plans for any more Unclaimed Superannuation Money (USM) remittance runs during December
- the ATO has conveyed it will work with any clients to ensure they are not disadvantaged because of the system issues.
The ATO has stated it is not aware of any data being ‘lost’ as a result of the outage, however, as some data (e.g. SuperTICK) may be sent to the ATO in ‘real time’, without a copy necessarily being retained, funds may want to identify whether, and which, data may need to be resent.
ASFA has been liaising with the ATO and they are aware that, once systems have been restored, it is crucial that an orderly and controlled ‘ramp up’ approach is put in place.
The ATO has indicated it is intending to write to trustees sometime over the next day or so.
The ATO has released a number of communiques through various channels. The best way to keep informed of the ATO’s progress on resolving this outage is to check the ATO’s Media Centre for the latest updates.