On 27 March, the Australian Taxation Office and 26 other government agencies will retire the decade-old login credentials replacing them with myGovID and an authorisation service called Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM).

Together, these prove the identity of an individual prior to granting them access to the ATO’s Business Portal and Online services for agents, as well as a range of other government online services.

“The overwhelming majority of businesses are setting up myGovID and RAM in less than 15 minutes. Over 80% of applicants are just downloading the myGovID app to their smart device and following the prompts. They don’t even need to look at any other instructions,” ATO chief digital officer John Dardo says.

“For those that need extra support, our web material, videos and Contact Centre hotlines are there to help.”

Additionally, organisations, tax professional practices and businesses with multiple AUSkey users can take advantage of the import AUSkey user function to transfer current permissions and create multiple authorisations in RAM. This is available until AUSkey retires on 27 March.

“It is important that tax professional practices or businesses with a large number of AUSkey users should be using as an opportunity to ensure that their users and their authorities have been reviewed and configured in a way that aligns with their organisational roles. Some organisations have discovered that they had hundreds or thousands of active AUSkeys assigned to people that had left their organisation years ago. For those organisations, this is an opportunity to review and implement a more robust management of authorisations for their employees.

“We are committed to ensuring that access to our services is as easy and flexible as possible, but we must also collectively increase the security of our online systems as we make more services available online. After all, the community expects us to be proactive in the protection of their data and their online accounts.”

Fortunately, with over a week to go, over 75% of businesses using AUSkey have already made the necessary move to myGovID, with the adoption rates trending well above ATO forecasts. This is great news, because the underlying AUSkey infrastructure was hardcoded to expire at the end of March when it was first built 10 years ago. It cannot be extended.

“In the current climate, we are also receiving positive feedback about the significant improvement in flexibility offered by myGovID, including allowing authorised users to enrol a myGovID and use it whilst working from home,” John says.

“Remember, there is no need to panic, whilst we encourage businesses to move to myGovID as early as possible, we will still be there to help them if they need to transition after 27 March. However they will not be able to access a range of online services for their businesses after 27 March, until they implement myGovID and RAM.”

“We understand that this is a difficult time for many. If you are experiencing difficulties with tax obligations because of bushfires or COVID-19 and not using our online services now, we will support you making the move to myGovID when you’re ready.”

“So far over 500,000 businesses and organisations have moved to myGovID with over 750,000 accepted authorisations of individuals and staff, and we continue to offer assistance to those who have yet to make the move,” Mr Dardo said.

Earlier this week the ATO released a number of updates for myGovID, including:

myGovID expansion to enable use of marriage certificates and change of name documents (in some states) to assist in proving an identity.

a facility to enable non-resident employees and staff without the required identity documents to enrol and be authorised to use myGovID for limited services and access.

More information on these updates and a range of guidance materials can be found at www.ato.gov.au/mygovid.