ASIC's payroll revamp helps it repatriate staff from ATO
After cessation of Modernising Business Registers program.
The Australian Securities Investments Commission (ASIC) is on track to complete a payroll transition from PeopleSoft to Aurion by the end of this year.
ASIC's payroll revamp helps it repatriate staff from ATO
The first phase of the transition, completed in April, facilitated the return of 200 staff from the tax office to ASIC after the Modernising Business Registers program was scrapped by the government.
Registry services staff were originally moved from ASIC to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for the project, only to be moved back when business registers and related services returned to ASIC’s scope as part of a machinery of government change in May 2024.
ASIC revealed in its annual report [pdf] that the implementation of a new payroll system "enabled us to smoothly transfer the registry operations team from the ATO [back] to ASIC."
iTnews understands that this is due to enterprise agreements between the departments and their employees.
Employees transitioning from the ATO to ASIC are covered by the ATO’s agreement, but Aurion can be configured for two separate agreements and allowed for an easy transition.
ASIC awarded Aurion $1.1 million for the implementation of payroll software-as-a-service and ongoing license fees. The agreement will run until June 2027.
The second phase of the project, bringing existing ASIC staff onto the new payroll system, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The change of payroll from PeopleSoft to Aurion is consistent with a broader ASIC-wide management systems upgrade following the adoption of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
ASIC is deploying a Technology One ERP, transitioning off PeopleSoft Financial.
It is also working to implement a new capital management system.
ASIC's payroll revamp helps it repatriate staff from ATO
Professionals blast the ATO’s inconsistent advice and unskilled staff, and are left feeling unloved. Plus: an AI-rapping actuary.
Welcome to Professional Life, our free weekly newsletter covering the latest news, moves, and partner promotions for consulting and accounting experts. Sign up here to get it direct to your inboxevery Wednesday before it appears online. Find out why tax agents feel unloved by the ATO, the Tax Practitioners Board moves on from investigating the PwC tax leaks scandal to other PwC tax issues, and behold the self-confessed maths nerd who raps about AI.
In this week’s issue:
- Taxing circumstances: Demanding better from the ATO.
- PwC investigations rumble on, and auditor numbers fall.
- Professional moves: Accenture managing director moves and an EY partner retirement.
- AI and the professions: End your next client presentation with your rapping alter-ego.
- #REF! Are you a passenger or a pilot? What does that even mean?
‘We are not valued’: Tax agents revolt over ATO treatment
Australia’s tax agents believe the Australian Taxation Office “does not value the role they play in the tax system” and have demanded better service from the agency, a review by Tax Ombudsman Ruth Owen found.
Agents complained to Owen about an “increasingly poor experience with the ATO’s agent phone line over the last two years, citing inconsistent advice and a lack of suitably skilled staff,” she said. “This is contributing to a general feeling of not being valued by the ATO.”
In response, the Tax Office agreed to several changes, including improving its engagement with agents, reviewing and addressing gaps in its digital service offerings and being more transparent about its decision-making criteria.
But the ATO objected to a recommendation to create a dedicated team to support tax agent calls. In a response to the review, the ATO’s second commissioner for frontline operations, David Allen, said the agency’s “focus should remain on investment in our digital channels for registered agents, training and escalation pathways, and creating more dedicated and skilled teams for those more complex areas”.
Read the full review of the effectiveness of the ATOs registered agent phone line
here. [PDF link]
The Tax Ombudsman has two current reviews underway: the ATO’s management of
the general interest charge and how the agency manages complex and long-running cases.
TPB finishes its PwC tax leaks investigations
The scope of the Tax Practitioners Board’s ongoing inquiries are unclear, but expected to be completed by next year, according to people not authorised to discuss ongoing inquiries.
Peter de Cure, the chairman of the Tax Practitioners Board, told a Senate estimates hearing a fortnight ago the board made findings against two current and two former PwC partners over the tax leaks matter. None have been named publicly.
The individuals, de Cure said, had breached the Tax Practitioners Board’s code to act with “honesty and integrity”. He also said that one of the former partners had appealed the finding.
The two current PwC partners sanctioned were not directly involved in sharing confidential information but failed to take appropriate action over the matter, according to people familiar with the details of the finding who asked for anonymity to speak more freely.
Company auditor numbers continue to fall
The number of registered company auditors continues to fall as many retire.
There were 3073 registered company auditors as of 2024-25, a reduction of 109 since the previous year and 480 since 2020-21.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission approved 170 applications for registered company auditors, authorised audit companies and SMSF auditors last year and refused 35. ASIC also cancelled or suspended 542 existing RCA and SMSF auditor registrations.
“The majority of cancellations/suspensions are voluntary or due to administrative reasons,” an ASIC spokesman said.
Professional moves
Bartier Perry has appointed EY partner Lisa-Marie McKechnie as a partner.
AI and the professions
How generative AI is shaping professional services.
Expert number cruncher Minh Phan is a self-confessed maths nerd and music obsessive – and he’s combining those loves into an unusual AI learning tool.
“People learn in different ways,” says Phan, whose raps usually come at the end of client presentations and are all inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musical Hamilton – that’s why he performs them under the rap name LLMILTON.
#REF!
A regular look at the words and phrases professionals love to use, and what they’re really saying.
Passenger, pilot
Use: “Right now, we’re seeing two kinds of workers emerge; 1. passengers, who copy-paste AI outputs and dump low-quality code, decks or copy on colleagues, and 2. pilots, who collaborate with AI to move work forward, check quality and reduce noise.” Press release sent to The Australian Financial Review about workers and AI.
Meaning: There are those who vet AI output, and those who don’t.
What it probably means: There are those who will keep their job in the age of AI and those who have (or will at some point) make career limiting mistakes with AI.
The alternative: Passengers doesn’t quite work (apart from the pleasant alliteration) because it implies you will get to the destination unscathed. In journalism terms it would be something like correspondent versus copycats.
Cheers,
Ed.
