IRD’s problems
Stuff reports:
Accountants are complaining they are facing big problems logging on to Inland Revenue’s MyIR tax system, with one saying the department appeared to be in a state of crisis.
John Cuthbertson, New Zealand tax leader at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, said it was aware from a number of sources of widespread problems.
“The issue came up at our national tax liaison meeting last week. We have had accountants call in to us and have logged the issue with Inland Revenue and followed up again today, but haven’t yet had a response.”
“There have been issues with either slowness or getting on, online. It varies between being very slow to pages breaking up when you go online to look at things.”
Cuthbertson said the problem was serious “in the sense that it is causing delay”.
“I’m not sure it is locking people out completely.”
Wellington accountant Matthew Underwood, who runs his own chartered accountancy firm Matthew Underwood Ltd, said clients were struggling to file GST returns and he believed the integrity of the whole tax system was under threat.
“We can’t log in; it is telling us that our password and usernames aren’t right. Though occasionally it will let us log in using the same credentials.
“Sometimes when you do get in, all my staff will see is a massive logo. It is totally random. Our clients are having the same problems.”
I’ve had these problems also. Very slow. Times out. Displays a blank screen. Most annoying of all is when you fill in a page on your tax return, submit it, and it forgets it and you have to start again. It has taken me weeks to do a very simple PTS confirmation and company tax return. I eventually managed.
Accountants tell me the problems started in April after an “upgrade”. It is certainly true that prior to this, the IRD system was pretty great. For quite a few years I have found it user friendly and easy. But a massive degradation in performance this year.
The Public Services Association union described Inland Revenue’s technology projects as “a mess” earlier this week, and said that was having a major impact on staff.
National secretary Erin Polaczuk said Inland Revenue’s systems were not equipped to process the best start tax credit payments, due to start next week, that should give lower income families an extra $60 a week for each child.
That meant the payments would have to be processed manually, drastically increasing their workload,” he said.
Doing it manually is ridiculous. This is how the problems with Novopay spread.