A Melbourne legal firm has approached taxation software vendor MYOB seeking greater support for customers strugglingto meet tax lodgement deadlines because of software glitches.
Nigel Preston, partner at legal firm Phillips Fox, met with the customers, while in Sydney the MYOB/AO User Groupand the vendor met in response to a litany of complaints from tax practitioners either coming up against problemsusing the software or still waiting for its delayed release.
Preston said his firm, representing some 100 accounting firms, wants to establish a clearer line of communicationbetween MYOB users and MYOB. After meeting with MYOB customers and discussing common problems, Preston said he willrequest the vendor put the known software problems on its Web site - not just those that are solved, supply adequateschedules of its software rollouts, and inform its users when telephone support is increased.
Massive changes to the tax legislation have caused tax software vendors, MYOB and Solution 6 to delay the release oftax software solutions, and to roll out software solutions with glitches, according to CPA Australia.
To add to the pressure it seems the Australian Taxation Office is unlikely to grant a blanket extension ofelectronic tax lodgement deadlines; however, it has granted a two-week extension for lodging the Business ActivityStatement to agents using MYOB, HandiTax, Elite and MicroTax.
CPA Australia said the two-week extension is not enough as it applies to those who received their software late, butnot to those that have encountered bugs in the quickly rolled out system.
MYOB has been the worst affected by changes, according to ATO. Delays to MYOB's rollout left about 20 to 25 per centof tax agents, some 5000 practitioners, unable to meet tax lodgement deadlines.