# Congratulations to the Australian Tax Office.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congratulations-to-the-australian-tax-office/692259>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 3, 2014, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congratulations-to-the-australian-tax-office/692259 "2014-07-03T09:06:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congratulations-to-the-australian-tax-office/692259/1 "2014-07-03T09:06:25Z")

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June 30th saw the end of the financial year here in Australia, so I lumbered into the ATO website to download their **eTax** online program to submit my tax return, as I’ve done every year since the interweb was invented.

But lo and behold, they’ve got a NEW program, called **myTax** , and it’s phenomenally simpler than the old version (which was also bog simple, and took maybe a half-hour to complete). This new one though took me all of FOUR MINUTES!!!

I’m just a regular schlepper, working and getting tax deducted from my pay, and with some nice ‘deductibles’ because I work from home and pay all my own office expenses. But it was so sweet and easy! Normally when I log on to do my tax-return, I pour a BIG glass of wine to get me through the (hah) ordeal. I barely got four sips in before I hit ‘submit’.

So, goodonya ATO. You’ve done good! 🙂

Oh, and it’s even gooder that I’m getting a bigger tax return than I anticipated!! 😃

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**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congratulations-to-the-australian-tax-office/692259/2 "2014-07-03T11:06:44Z")

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I haven’t got started yet, my sister claimed it was more painful. Discomfort will result no matter what - I will owe a chunk, as I don’t pay tax as I earn.

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**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congratulations-to-the-australian-tax-office/692259/3 "2014-07-03T11:08:03Z")

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> [@kambuckta](#):
>
> June 30th saw the end of the financial year here in Australia, so I lumbered into the ATO website to download their **eTax** online program to submit my tax return, as I’ve done every year since the interweb was invented.
> 
> But lo and behold, they’ve got a NEW program, called **myTax** , and it’s phenomenally simpler than the old version (which was also bog simple, and took maybe a half-hour to complete). This new one though took me all of FOUR MINUTES!!!
> 
> I’m just a regular schlepper, working and getting tax deducted from my pay, and with some nice ‘deductibles’ because I work from home and pay all my own office expenses. But it was so sweet and easy! Normally when I log on to do my tax-return, I pour a BIG glass of wine to get me through the (hah) ordeal. I barely got four sips in before I hit ‘submit’.
> 
> So, goodonya ATO. You’ve done good! 🙂
> 
> Oh, and it’s even gooder that I’m getting a bigger tax return than I anticipated!! 😃

That’s sharp timing on getting your Group Certificate!

I understand from a letter I got from the ATO, that eTax is still there if needed for a more complicated return. With myTax for simple ones. So Four minutes? excellent. Less work for me since I invariably wind up doing both my wife’s and mine.

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**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congratulations-to-the-australian-tax-office/692259/4 "2014-07-03T11:16:41Z")

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Nice work. I don’t have my payment summary yet and from experience it takes at least a month for all the various info to flow into the ATO from banks etc.

I like to use the prefill option so I can see what info the government already knows about me. What they don’t know, I see no need to enlighten them about unless it benefits me.😛