We've engaged with professional associations, registered agents and businesses since the client-to-agent linking pilot program commenced in June 2022. We held feedback sessions with these stakeholders after each phase of deployment to:
- listen to their experiences
- identify opportunities to enhance the client-to-agent linking process.
We've delivered the following enhancements as a result of this feedback:
- Increased the nomination expiry period from 7 days to 28 days.
- Developed a real-time, on demand report in Online services for agents so agents can see nominations pending their action.
- Agents can now transfer existing clients between registered agent numbers associated with the same practice ABN without an agent nomination.
- Income tax agents can now add a client at the FBT account level without an additional agent nomination.
- Identifying clients that would need our assistance with the agent nomination process, and setting up support processes (including an agent practice mail option) for them. These clients include
- foreign entities
- foreign entertainers/sportspeople who use an entity for tax purposes
- strata titles
- bulk groups
- a small number of entities without an ABN included in the client-to-agent linking pilot program.
- In-system guidance messages in Online services for agents. This helps agents to
- link to their client at the right account level, and
- alerts the agent when they're about to remove another agent from an account.
Further information on the client-to-agent linking process is available for both clients and agents.