e-tax bugs

[Tandum (Robin)]

Anyone else having issues with e-tax this year?

It won't let me enter share dividends etc. It says this is downloaded data you can't edit it, but it didn't download any share data.

I want my refund ....

[Sarge (Rod)]

If you selected self populate at the start of your e-tax,the Tax Dept already know what dividend was paid to you (as well as a lot of other payments) - the company already told them.

Big brother working.

Clear skies

Rod

[Tandum (Robin)]

Problem is, it's not downloading anything and even if you don't select pre-fill it won't let you enter the data.
They got the cheek to charge 30% tax on the dividends, I want all those franking credits back thanks

[dannat (Daniel)]

You're not at work r u , it won't download the data properly thru a proxy?

I found it worked ok, but pretty slow

[Tandum (Robin)]

I work from home

I'll have to ring them

[Kev11 (Kevin)]

There are other bugs again this year. I used to work for a tax accountant and use e-tax myself. It is extremely annoying and an indictment of their IT people that modules which have been working perfectly have glitches in a new tax year.
Keep checking for updates - sometimes it is the end of July before they sort it out.

[Tandum (Robin)]

I rang them and asked why I can't manually enter data. They didn't answer my question, they said to try downloading again next month. I'm starting to miss the days of picking up a tax pack from the newsagents

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by Tandum

I rang them and asked why I can't manually enter data. They didn't answer my question, they said to try downloading again next month. I'm starting to miss the days of picking up a tax pack from the newsagents

You've got to either ring or go through the ATO's web side to get sent a paper copy.
I found lots of things that usually would pre-populate are missing this year.
Have you noticed this time you have to get all the details for your spouse's income and tax to fill in the medicare section. We both have private insurance and that should be all they need to know. Damn intrusive.

[Tandum (Robin)]

Don't give me more bad news, I haven't got that far. She was sacked by Can Do Cambell so that ones a mystery. I just want to rollover depreciation figures and etax does it automagically. Might be time to flick it to a tax agent and claim it?

[Kev11 (Kevin)]

Best of luck, Robin. I spent 2 hours getting my depreciation done yesterday - after downloading the latest ATO update (which appeared to be the whole e-tax all over again). All the rollover items appeared with (ROLLOVER)(ROLLOVER) in front of them which had to be deleted, also e-tax will now not accept anything but alpha characters so more editing. Still kept getting the V9999 error, finally cleared by tabbing through every field in every item (fortunately not so many because I have consolidated items into groups each year e-tax appears with one of these glitches - four times since 2000). I started computing in 1967 on main-frames then the early desk-tops in 1970s when one had to be an efficient programmer to deal with limited hardware resources so this sort of sloppy IT work by or for ATO really makes me mad.
Cheers Kevin

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Just to put a bit of balance on this thread...
I have been using eTax since it was first released.
It has gotten better every year.
I don't recall ever having a problem (that I did not cause)
I did get the ROLLOVER ROLLOVER one year, but I was more careful after that.

But at the end of the day, it is FREE software.
And it is quicker and easier than doing a paper tax return.
And it is cheaper than visiting a tax agent.
And I believe you can ring the ATO for help (although I have never availed myself of that facility, I know others who have).

But if you have a complicated set of circumstances, for whatever reason, you probably should be getting it done professionally.

I have to admit the tax laws are getting more complicated, so I rely on the "questionnaire" method to try to ensure that I have covered everything.
[Disclosure: I am a retired accountant, although not a tax agent]

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

I used etax 2013 worked ok...then when ,my guard was down....used it again for another family member.

Etax2013 buggered up the password (right at the end of the tax entries) then wouldn't let me re-enter data to get a new password, it locked out half the keyboard keys. A first I thought the KB had died...many KBs later no fix.

Called the eTax help line...they said I had to clear firefox cache...what a joke...I asked if they were serious ...unfortunately they were! (for the uninitiated etax program had nothing to do with firefox, completely separate programs and firefox was not running). The help desk had no idea at all!

Took me 3 computers and a number of uninstalls and re-installs and fresh downloads to finally fix it.

Then used it again a few days later for another family member...wet thru all ok. So go figure!

[MattH (Matt)]

I have never had any problems with e-tax. I started with the first version ever released and I used it this year on the 4th of July again. Before the e-tax, I paid for so-called professional services, and they have never done it correctly. I have to admit that I had to spent a lot of time while reading the tax rules (law) when I was using e-tax for the first time to get everything right. Next year it was easier. This year, I was a little confused as for medicare related issues but I managed to handle it.

[el_draco (Rom)]

Sometimes you have to uninstall it completely and start again. Having said that, I downloaded 1/7 and, submitted 3/7 and had my refund by 10/7... and am desperately trying not to spend it