Tax

Eleventh hour extension for ATO director IDs


Joseph Brookes
Senior Reporter

The Tax Office is giving company directors an extra two weeks to apply for its new compulsory director ID program, with around 700,000 yet to sign up ahead of the original deadline on Wednesday.

The director ID is a unique 15-digit identifier that from Wednesday is a requirement for all directors. It has been introduced as part of the troubled modernising business register program and a key anti-fraud measure.

Obtaining the life-long ID requires directors to verify their identity with the Australian Taxation Office through a myGovID. The ATO expects director IDs to limit the $5 billion lost to illegal phoenix activity each year.

Failure to obtain an ID could attract penalties or offences, but the tax office is promising a “reasonable” approach to supporting applications and a “pragmatic” approach to compliance,

ATO Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan. Image ATO/Twitter

In a statement released on deadline day, ATO Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan said no action would be taken against directors in relation to their application if they apply for an ID by December 14.

“Over 1.8 million directors have now applied for their director ID, with almost 78,000 directors applying in one day alone on 29 November 2022,” he said in a statement.

“But with the total director population in Australia estimated to be more than 2.5 million, this means around 700,000 directors still need to apply.”

The director ID is a key plank of the ATO’s modernising business registers program. The program received an additional $166.2 million in the October budget, including $86.2 million to administer the director ID component.

The former Coalition government began the modernising business register project in 2019 to replace dozens of business registers, including the 30-year-old Australian Business Register, with a single platform operated by a one-stop shop service called Australian Business Registry Services.

In July, the new Labor government revealed the project would cost another $1 billion to complete after being told by Treasury that the project was “not properly resourced, behind schedule, and over budget”.

The ATO was subsequently given another four years to complete the overhaul after it became clear the new registry platform would not be ready.

Around half of funding allocated before the October Budget had been spent outsourcing key functions of the project, with consulting giant Accenture brought in for the bulk of the work and billing the ATO more than $70,000 a day.

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2 Comments
  1. Digital Koolaid 1 year ago

    The claim that this exercise is “modernising business registers program” is false. The claim that the ATO administers corporations is false. The business / corporate affairs of Australia are the domain of ASIC. It administers the Corporations Act 2001. THE ATO taxes business rather than defines it. The process of registering for a Director ID has been designed with that function in mind. The absurdity is that – at the end of the Director ID process – no connection to is made to the identity of the company that directors administer. Directors are registered. Huge quantities of their personal and taxation information is recorded. Companies are never mentioned. No link is made between directors and the companies they direct. The Director ID process is completely perverted. The Director ID is controlled by the ATO not ASIC. Should ASIC be disbanded and the money saved?

  2. James 1 year ago

    This is what happens when public money is spent. The process is ridiculous with users required to install and use a smartphone app which has some of the lowest ratings on the app store and requires access to more private info, why? Accenture and other big consulting firms are laughing all the way to the bank!!!

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