Plans are underway to carry out a system change during the December closure of the ATO to introduce Activity statement financial processing (ASFP). This change will move the majority of taxpayer financial information into one accounting system that will have multiple accounts.

ASFP will shift activity statement and franking deficit tax accounts from the current ATO system into their primary accounting system, covering all the different taxes they administer. This change is intended to help improve ATO digital services by delivering simplified transaction descriptions and summary views of “statement of account transactions” with the ability to view full account transaction if required.

During the closure, a number of ATO online services will be unavailable. These include;

• SuperMatch: A service that enables APRA-regulated funds to consolidate member accounts.

• EmployerTICK: An online service employers can voluntarily use to validate employee details, prior to making the first contribution to a super fund.

• Fund Validation Service (FVS): A service that enables employers and funds to obtain APRA-regulated funds’ e-commerce details that support SuperStream transactions.

• Electronic portability form (EPF): An ATO-hosted form that can be used by fund members to transfer the whole balance of super accounts between APRA-regulated funds, or to member’s self-managed super fund.

• Member Account Attribution Service (MAAS): A service for super providers and life insurance companies to report the opening and closing of accounts, and changes to a member’s account phases and attributes when they occur (event-based reporting).

• Member Account Transaction Service (MATS): A service for super providers and life insurance companies to report member contributions or transactions more frequently and at a transactional level.
• Small business superannuation clearing house (SBSCH): The superannuation clearing house is a free online super payments service that can be used by employers with 19 or fewer employees or have an annual aggregated turnover of $10 million or less, to pay super contributions in one transaction to a single location.

Businesses will still be able to report using STP, however, these records won’t be processed and displayed until the ATO systems are back up and running. The ATO’s “System maintenance page” and “Superannuation Dashboard” will be updated with dates of planned system outages.