Australian Taxation Office joins myGov portal

With the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) allowing online tax return filing from July this year, the ATO has become part of the commonwealth myGov portal.

In a statement released earlier this week, Minister for Human Services Marise Payne and Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann said Australians will be able to complete their tax returns this year using a myGov account as authentication.

Beyond the ability to file a tax, the ATO's online services include tracking of superannuation, paying debts, and checking the progress of tax returns.

The ATO joins Medicare, Centrelink, Child Support, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and e-Health as part of the government portal.

"myGov saves people time and hassle when engaging with government online and we are pleased to welcome the Australian Taxation Office on board," the statement said.

"Ensuring easy, secure access to essential services is very important to the Government and myGov users can be confident that their personal information and records are in very safe hands."

With the addition of the ATO onto myGov, the portal will potentially store personal and financial details on users that have signed up for a myGov account. This has lead to calls for the portal to implement two-factor authentication to increase security.

In the recent Commission of Audit report released last week, the report held up myGov as an example of governmental online engagement with the populace that other departments and agencies should follow.

The Commission recommended that myGov be the default manner for engaging with government and be moved from opt-in to opt-out for agencies, with the myGov login credentials being strengthened with the addition of biometric information.

The audit recommended that the Australian government move to a "digital by default" strategy and embrace cloud computing, e-Government services, outsourcing, and shared services and procurement.