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The trouble with myGov and the ATO

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myGov is one of a host of online tools that can be extremely helpful to individuals wishing to access their financial information.  Unfortunately, the myGov portal has one glaring pitfall, i.e. once you link your myGov account with the ATO, or make a payment to the ATO through the myGov portal, all correspondence goes to your myGov inbox. It will not be posted to your address or emailed anywhere else. Just as importantly, it does NOT go to your tax agent.

Unless you check your myGov inbox every week or opt for SMS notifications, you won’t know if you’ve been sent your Notices of Assessment, BAS, IAS and Div 293 assessments, excess contributions assessment notices or payment demand notices. Not until the ATO sends your tax agent a demand for payment and a hefty late fee, including incurred interest. That said, there is an easy solution.

How to fix the problem.

If you have already registered for myGov, there is a way to avoid missing important correspondence from the ATO.

  1. Simply sign in to myGov, go to the Services page, locate the Link/Unlink icon, and make sure the ATO is unlinked.

  2. You or your tax agent will then need to call the ATO to request your delivery preferences be changed back to postal.

Note: if you use myGov to make payments to the ATO at a later date, this will re-activate the link to the ATO. Be sure to unlink again.

If you have any questions about your tax, our best advice is to simply contact your Bongiorno Tax Adviser. We’re here to help.

Please call us on (02) 9326 2788

SCAM ALERT

Bongiorno has recently become aware of scam text messages, purporting to be sent from myGov or the ATO. These texts request the recipient’s bank account details. myGov and the ATO will NEVER contact you for banking details via SMS. If you receive a text notification of this sort, please do NOT respond.

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