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UnhappyUser1234's avatar
UnhappyUser1234
Experienced User
5 years ago

MYOB AE Tax 2019 - Duplicate Tax Withheld - 2019 Individual Income Tax Return (Item 3 - Amount A Lump Sum Payments)

In reviewing lodged copy of 2019 Individual Income Tax Return on MYOB Tax software, I found that duplicate Tax Withheld amounts have appeared at Item 1 - Tax Withheld (Salary & Wages) & Item 3 - Amount A Lump Sum Payment Amounts.

 

In my original copy saved on file & lodged with the ATO vs electronic copy generated from MYOB Tax earlier this month, I noted that Total Tax Withheld have "mysteriously" duplicated to Item 3 - Amount A Lump Sum Payments, This software error have resolved in multiple phone calls & correspondence with the ATO to resolve this discrepancy. 

 

Contacted MYOB support & provided hard copies of 2x versions of tax returns as supporting evidence.

 

Still received very generic response as below - not helpful at all! 

 

Client did not provide return export for testing -advised client to follow to rule out corruption/install issues: KB0017951 - Refreshing the System Services links (AE Tax Series 6 & 8) KB0017908 - Performing an Integrity Check KB0018341 - Transferring the parameter table and layouts to SQL (AE Tax Series 6/8)

 

 

  • Helen-Z's avatar
    Helen-Z
    5 years ago

    Hello UnhappyUser1234 

     

    Thank you for taking the time to discuss this with me. I believe we've been able to work out the cause of the issue, and as we discussed, it appears it was a data corruption.

     

    We do take data security very seriously, and as MattN mentioned, all staff sign non-disclosure agreements before becoming one of our team.

     

    As mentioned in our discussion, it is worth keeping an eye on the server performance - maybe ask your IT provider to keep tabs on it. This will help with the speed of the server, as well as any further corruption issues.

     

  • Hi UnhappyUser1234 

     

    Thanks for your question!

     

    We've not seen PAYG or ETP entries duplicated by themselves before.  If you've used the ATO's Prefill feature, and someone has added additional entries, this could cause a discrepancy.  If no prefill was used, then it is very difficult to pinpoint a cause.

     

    Our support team would have asked for exports of the returns - as this is the only way we can get all the detail that is in a return - using printouts of a return does not include all information that was prepared/included in a return.

     

    Our staff have all signed non-disclosure agreements to protect client's sensitive information for this purpose.

     

    Looking at the return prints that you have submitted, there is absolutely no way to assess what has occured or what has been entered etc - as not all the applicable data is available - I would suggest, as above, that you provide exports for this return so we can examine further.

     

    There is also a chance that something occured during a "write" to the database - and this could lead to potential issues with (generally) one item being potentially messed up.  Exporting the return allows us to examine the data at a very base level - field=value.  It is highly unlikely that multiple fields would have been affected (as a database write occurs when you leave one field, to move into the next)

     

    Sometimes, when an issue occurs, exporting a return will often allow you to remove then reimport the return (as it removes the record from the database and recreates from the "most basic elements - field=value".

     

    If this has occured on a single return, then it's possible that something either occuring during the writing of the data, or a user has made modifications/prefilled etc.

     

    What data did the ATO actually receive in the transmission for this taxpayer when you lodged the return prepared on 4th October, 2019?  did they in fact receive duplicate data?  do you have an incident number we can follow up with the ATO regarding this?  What date was this 4th of October 2019 return lodged?

     

    Secondly, the second return print you have provided appears to be for same tax payer (difficult to tell with so much redacted information), however, it was "Prepared" in January 2020.  This would indicate that someone has potentially edited the original return (assuming the original return prepared in October 2019 was not lodged).  The second return also indicates that it is an 'orginal' not an 'amendment' which further supports this hypothesis.

     

    If you can provide our support team with an Audit Trail report for this return, it might also give some indication of what has occured.

    • UnhappyUser1234's avatar
      UnhappyUser1234
      Experienced User

      Hi Matt,

       

      Thanks for your detailed response to my enquiry earlier today.

       

      If you can provide your personal email address & instructions on how to export tax returns in a private message to me, then I can try to organise this request to be actioned further and provide the specific information requested.

       

      Based on the information available, I will only be able to provide physical hard (PDF) copy of the original tax return with the correct figures as lodged with the ATO back on 4 Oct 2019. The electronic copy on the MYOB system is now showing the duplicate Tax Withheld amounts at Label 1 of the tax return. This is a very strange incident as the "completion code & date" at the bottom of return are exactly the same between the 2x copies.

       

      I also had to manually create a new "amended" tax return on the MYOB system earlier last Tue & organised it to be shown as "manually lodged by paper" to ensure this latest copy is showing the right figures.

       

      In reviewing the original amounts lodged with the ATO portal back in Nov 2019, the summary report also listed the duplicate Tax Withheld amounts plus a strange amount at Label 13S, resulting in a significantly larger refund than expected on the original assessment.

       

      Overall, this whole process required many communication between the ATO & our client and followed up with long phone call by myself last Tue to literally go through each line of the tax return to ensure the right amounts have been reported. 

       

      The overall audit & review process took close to 3 months (from Nov 2019 to Jan 2020) for this issue to be resolved. 

       

      Ultimately, this issue for the client have now been fixed, so there is no further action to resolve any mistakes.

       

      I only raised the support call & followed with this post to make yourself & MYOB support team colleagues be aware of this incident.

       

      Thanks for your assistance.

      • Helen-Z's avatar
        Helen-Z
        MYOB Staff

        Hello UnhappyUser1234 

         

        Thank you for taking the time to discuss this with me. I believe we've been able to work out the cause of the issue, and as we discussed, it appears it was a data corruption.

         

        We do take data security very seriously, and as MattN mentioned, all staff sign non-disclosure agreements before becoming one of our team.

         

        As mentioned in our discussion, it is worth keeping an eye on the server performance - maybe ask your IT provider to keep tabs on it. This will help with the speed of the server, as well as any further corruption issues.