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ATO Community

Help

  • What is ATO Community?

  • How does Community work?

  • How do I use Community?

    • How do I register?

      To join the discussion you will need to register an account. It's easy and will only take a few minutes. You will be required to verify your account through a valid email address.

      You will also need to confirm that you are not a robot by using reCAPTCHA. Email us at ATOCommunity@ato.gov.au if you need help with your registration.

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    • How quickly should I expect a response?

      Other registered members who are part of our community of experts will join in the conversation by providing a response. This generally happens within 24 hours.

      In some cases, particularly when a question is complex, the community may not respond. In these circumstances, our team of moderators will seek expert advice within the ATO to help provide a response.

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    • We apply game elements and principles to encourage engagement and reward you for interacting with our Community. This includes liking other posts, accepting solutions, posting your own question and answering other member's questions. The more you interact the higher you will rank and you may also unlock unique features.

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    • A badge is an icon you receive as a reward for interacting with our Community. You will receive badges when you like a post, ask questions or answer someone else?s question.

      To view your badges, login to the Community and go to my activity.

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    • Your rank will be greyed out next to your username. This will change over time as you interact more with the Community, posting questions and providing responses to others.

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    • What is a best answer?

      Best Answers are a way for you to acknowledge a great response to a question that you've posted. When you choose a best answer, the answer gets a special icon and let's other members of the community know that the question has been answered.

      The person who posted the questions can mark a best answer by selecting 'Accept as solution' on the bottom of the post. Moderators may also do this to close off an answered question.

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    • What is an ATO certified response?

      We will ATO certify answers when we are confident they are correct to help provide you with certainty. For a post to be certified we look to make sure it is technically correct and links back to ato.gov.au to show you where to find more info.

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    • Can I choose my avatar?

      Yes, you can change your avatar in your settings.

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    • What is a moderator?

      A moderator is a person who manages a community to ensure it is a safe, positive environment and that users are adhering to the house rules and terms of service.

      ATO Community has a team of moderators that monitor the platform. If you need to get in contact with one of our moderators you can email them at atocommunity@ato.gov.au.

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    • Can I delete my posts?

      You can edit your posts for up to 24 hours, but you may not delete them. Be sure to check your spelling and preview your post before posting it.

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    • Can I receive notifications when topics I am interested in are updated?

      Yes, you can subscribe to get email updates when new content appears in a category, topic board or post you are interested in.

      You can subscribe to a category or topic board by clicking on the subscribe icon on the right hand side of the board name.

      To subscribe to a post click the 'Options' button at the top of the post and scroll down until you see subscribe.

      You can also use a bookmark to list community content to a single page so you can easily find it again.

      RSS allows you to subscribe to a topic board or post and have updates sent to you directly so you don't have to login and search for the post or thread. If you want further information on this email us ATOCommunity@ato.gov.au.

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  • How do I update my settings?

    • If you are using a mobile device ...

      Email us if you have any problems using your mobile device ATOCommunity@ato.gov.au.

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    • How can I update my subscriptions and bookmarks?

      You can update your subscriptions and bookmarks by clicking on 'my settings' and the 'subscriptions & bookmarks' tab.

      Adjusting your email subscriptions settings means that you can opt to receive all updates, some, none, or you can choose the specific types of posts you want to be notified about.

      By default we will send you an email when someone replies to your question, likes your post, tags you in a post or you receive a new badge.

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  • Contacting us

  • Community guidelines

    • Common terms

      Thread - A thread appears on the forum after a member of the community posts a question. A thread can include multiple posts.

      Board - Boards are used on the forum to help organise information into topics.

      Tag - A tag can be a single word or a phrase that describes your post and helps other users identify topics they are interested in.

      Badge - A badge is an icon you receive as a reward for interacting with our Community.

      Knowledge base - When we see a trend in similar questions on the forum we can create an article to help other people understand what to do. We also certify these articles to give you certainty in the information.

      ATO certified post - When you see a post has been ATO certified it means that our moderators have checked the information and can confirm it's correct.

      Best answer - The person who posted the question can mark a best answer by selecting 'Accept as solution' on the bottom of the post. Moderators may also do this to close off an answered question.

      Avatar - You can choose from a range of different characters that represents you on the forum and will appear as your profile picture.

      Likes - When you like a post or article you are giving a thumbs-up to the author and letting other community members know you like the content.

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    • House rules - how we want everyone to behave

      We at ATO Community work hard to create a positive and helpful environment. Please help to keep the community safe, friendly and supportive by following these few simple rules:

      • Be kind! Treat others with respect. If you wouldn't say it to someone in real life, don't say it to them online.
      • Avoid politics. We are an apolitical organisation so we need your comments and posts to also be apolitical.
      • Keep it clean. Be conscious not to offend. Derogatory statements or profanity and inappropriate content (including photos) will be deleted. Never threaten or offend.
      • Don't fight. We welcome healthy discussion and encourage you to challenge the information and not the person.
      • Stay on topic. Don't hijack someone else's question with your own, unrelated issues. Start a new thread or contact the moderators with issues.
      • Make it clear. Keep the language simple so everyone can understand. Avoid unexplained acronyms and jargon.
      • Protect your identity and the identity of others. Your username, avatar and posts are accessible by the public. Don't use personal info or details that can identify yourself or others. Never include tax file numbers.
      • Don't advertise. No spam, advertising, solicitations, irrelevant links.
      • Don't use it as a soapbox. It's not the right place to push your personal issues or agenda. Keep the content relevant to the community.
      • Give credit. Don't infringe on copyright or intellectual property when posting on our Community. Give credit if you reference somebody else's work.
      • Don't post financial advice. Under Australian law you must be registered with a professional industry body to provide financial advice so keep advice general.
      • Report any issues. If you think something breaks our rules, let us know so we can look into it.
      • Let people be anonymous. Don't challenge the anonymity of others.
      • Know your stuff. ATO Community is not a binding advice service. It is largely the opinions and thoughts of others. Check out the information before relying on it. You can always check ato.gov.au.
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    • Moderation guidelines - what we do to keep ATO Community a safe, positive space

      We at ATO Community are here to provide a safe, confidential space for the community to anonymously discuss tax and super topics that matter to them. This might be asking questions, sharing knowledge or reading along with other conversations.

      We value your privacy and keeping ATO Community a positive, safe space so we work hard in the background to moderate the site. We ask you to read through these moderation guidelines so you know what to expect from each other.

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    • Why we don't answer straight away

      A community should be mostly driven by peer to peer conversation. It is not a channel intended for an instant response. We will always give the community an opportunity to talk amongst themselves before we get involved. This is best practice for any community.

      We won't leave you hanging! If we notice a question has gone unanswered we will jump in and respond. Keep in mind for the complex questions, we might need to refer to the experts for an answer and this can take time.

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    • Why do we ATO certify some answers?

      We want to give the community some certainty to rely on answers we know are accurate. We will mark a response as ATO certified when we consider it is:

      • Technically correct
      • Clear and concise
      • Linking to further information
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    • When do we step in?

      We work hard in the background but strongly believe the topics and conversation on ATO Community should be driven by the community. However, if someone breaks our House Rules or we feel like we can contribute to the conversation, we will get involved.

      To manage the site, we may edit or archive posts. We will get in touch to let you know if there are any big issues.

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  • Terms of service

  • Accessibility commitment

    • Exceptions

      While accessibility is a major priority for us, we cannot control the accessibility of information posted to this site by community members.

      If anything on this site is inaccessible to you, or you are experiencing problems accessing content for any reason, please let us know what the problem is by emailing atocommunity@ato.gov.au and (if you have one) what a good solution might be.

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  • Privacy

    • What information do we collect?

      We collect information from you when you register with us and we gather data when you participate in forums. You may visit ATO Community without registering but you will not be able to participate by posting replies, asking questions, liking posts, etc.

      You will be asked to provide your email address when you register. We will verify that you control the email address by sending a verification email containing a unique link. We collect this information to assist us to administer the site.

      When you post a message while you are signed-in to an ATO Community account, we record the IP address that your post originated from. We also track site usage information via Lithium Social Intelligence and Google Analytics.

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    • How do we use your information?

      Any information we collect from you is used for one of the following purposes:

      • To personalise your experience.
      • To improve our site.
      • To improve our customer service.
      • To send you notification emails.

      We aggregate site usage information to understand how ATO Community is used and inform future development decisions. We will not use your personal information to analyse your activity as an individual.

      Where required or authorised by law, we may disclose information we collect from you on the community site. We are unlikely to disclose your personal information to overseas recipients.

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    • How do we protect your information?

      Your identity is protected behind a username that you choose at the time your register. The ATO and other users will not be able to identify you unless you provide sufficient information about yourself to the community.

      We will make efforts to remove personal information (for example, Tax File Numbers) from posts to minimise the amount of personal information contained on ATO Community.

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    • Personal information that you post

      As an ATO Community user, you are not required to post any of your personal information on ATO Community.

      Any personal information that you choose to post in ATO Community is available to any person who views ATO Community, including overseas viewers. That information may also appear in search results on external search engines even after you delete that information on ATO Community.

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  • Disclaimer

Table of contents

Did you know?

ATO certified tag

The ATO certified tag confirms we’ve checked the answer and it’s clear, technically correct and shows you where to find out more.

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