Category Archives: Updates

Bugfixes
This release incorporates a number of fixes for bugs that have been reported by users recently:

Form EC:
The length of the taxpayer signatory identifier field has been corrected.

Form ET:
The franked distributions total amount in the Distribution Statement has been corrected for franked distributions from trusts (VR.ATO.TRT.432179).
Edits VR.ATO.TRT.432079 and VR.ATO.TRT.43235 have been fixed.

Form MS:
Edit VR.ATO.SMSFAR.436069 has been fixed.
Item 13 label J now forced to ‘0.00’ if nothing entered; this is a mandatory field that several people have had trouble with.

Form EP:
The Rent Schedule SBR file was sometimes not being generated correctly.

Enhancements
This release incorporates the following enhancement:

Form MS:
The item 10 screen has been updated with usage notes from the print facsimile.

In particular, this clarifies that if label E is set to No, then Section B (Income) should not be completed. New SBR edits now check for this, although the wording of the edits is not particularly clear.

Note that this behaviour is different to ELS, which previously allowed this combination of data fields to be entered, despite what was shown on the print facsimile.

Enhancements
This release incorporates the following major enhancements:

Forms MS, ET and EF:
These returns are now SBR only.

Client database:
“View lodged returns list” has been added to the main menu.

Bugfixes
This release incorporates a number of fixes for bugs that have been reported by users recently:

Form EI:
The HECS Repayment Income amount calculation has been fixed for negative taxable incomes in the Tax Estimate.
The “Study and Training Support Debt” section has been added to the tax estimate audit trail.

This release incorporates a number of fixes for bugs that have been reported by users recently:

Form EP:
Edit VR.ATO.PTR.430051 has been fixed.

General Ledger:
Extra debugging code added to Read Trial Balance Prev YTD report.

Enhancements
This release incorporates a number of enhancements:

Main Control Module:
The Windows Short Date format is now checked at startup. This was added when we became aware that at least one client did not have the correct settings in Windows, which was causing mysterious errors in Microtax.

Microtax Manual:
The “SBR tagged facsimile” menu item has been added to the “ATO forms” menu.

Bugfixes
This release incorporates a number of fixes for bugs that have been reported by users recently:

Form EP:
Edit VR.ATO.GEN.1914 has been fixed.

Form MS:
The calculation statement was not correct under some circumstances.· In the print facsimile, schedule BW questions 8F & 8G have been reworded for super funds.

Form EC:
The calculation statement was not generating correctly in the SBR file under some circumstances.

Client Database:
Get Dates Lodged was giving an error if the lodgment logfile wasn’t found..

Enhancements
This release incorporates the following major enhancements:

Main Control Module:
“Transfer SBR files” and “PLS communications” buttons are now displayed.

Microtax manual:
The “SBR tagged facsimile” menu item has been added.

Form EP:
The Partnership Tax Return is now SBR only.

Bugfixes
This release incorporates a number of fixes for bugs that have been reported by users recently:

Form EI:
The Work Related Expenses schedule was sometimes not being accepted by the ATO.
V35 edit for ^KJZ added.

This release incorporates a number of fixes for bugs that have been reported by users recently:

Form EI:
Unearned Income of a Minor tax scales have been updated.
Work Related Expenses screens & printout cleaned up a little.

Several modules:
Labels 8F and 8G have been added to the Capital Gains schedule.

This release incorporates a number of fixes for bugs that have been reported by users recently:

Form EI:
ETP tax rates have been corrected.
The tax estimate “Total other rebates and credits” amount was not including Lump Sum A rebate.

Several modules:
Some screens were not being displayed properly on computers that were set to large fonts.

This release incorporates a fix for a problem that was reported by several users over the last few days:

A number of modules were reporting the error “Unable to locate file \MTPARAM.DAT”. This update should correct that issue.

This release incorporates an SBR-related bug fix that was identified by a user last week.

1. Maintain System Parameters
The field holding the AUSkey Path was sometimes too short.

Bug Fixes
This release incorporates a number of fixes for bugs that have been reported by users recently.

1. Form EI
Invalid suburb name edit V210B was sometimes incorrectly reported.

2. Maintain System Parameters
The AUSkey password was sometimes not saved correctly.

3. Client database
All reports cleaned up and a number of formatting bugs fixed.

4. Depreciation schedule
Assets purchased more than a year ago were sometimes being depreciated at an incorrect rate.

Enhancements
This release also incorporates a number of small enhancements.

1. Form EI
As requested by a user: “Would it be possible to have the Medicare levy surcharge amount as a separate amount under the normal levy on the estimate page. This would give my clients a clear indication of the extra tax they are paying when they choose not to have PHI.”

2. Most modules
The Enter Client Code screen has been updated to make your data entry options more obvious.

This release incorporates a fix for a bug that was reported in the last few days.

1. Form EI
The Personal Health Insurance Rebate calculation has been corrected.

Bug fixes
This release incorporates a number of fixes for bugs that were inadvertently introduced in the last update.

1. Client Long Codes
The automatically generated client Long Codes sometimes left space characters in the code.

2. Some screens not displaying properly
Some screens (such as “Transfer ELS files”) were not displaying properly.

3. Form EI
Erroneous PAYG entry #21 was sometimes rolled over from 2016, causing problems.

Enhancements
This release also incorporates a number of small enhancements.

1. Facsimile print options
Facsimile print options for all tax returns are now saved individually for each client.

2. Data restore options
Data restore options are now also saved, thus making backups/restores easier since you most likely would use the same options every time you did a restore. This is particularly useful for clients who use Dropbox to transfer data between computers.

This release incorporates a number of usability enhancements.

1. Tax Estimate automatically prints after Tax Return Facsimile.
As requested by a user: “Why not include the Tax Estimate as part of Tax Return print when printing a complete tax return for a client. This is easy when emailing tax return to a client rather than doing two emails to them.”

2. Enter Key page accept.
One Microtax feature that long-time users particularly love is the ability to accept the data on just about any page by simply pressing the Enter key (instead of clicking the OK button).

However, we have become aware that some new Microtax users have difficulty with this, not being fully aware what is happening or why.

Therefore we have added the ability to turn this feature off. You can, of course, turn it back on anytime you wish.

Follow this procedure:

• On the Main Control Module top menu, select “Utilities” and then “Maintain system parameters”. This starts the Maintain System Parameters Module.
• On the Maintain System Parameters Module top menu, select “Global” and then “General parameters”.
• Change “Disable Enter Key page accept” to Yes.

3. Enter Unlock Code.
The Enter Unlock Code screen has been made more intuitive.

4. Client Alpha Code and Long Codes
The formats of the automatically generated client Alpha Codes and Long Codes have been updated.

This release fixes a number of small bugs reported by clients this week:

Form EI:

• Rolling in last year’s rental schedule was not working correctly.

Depreciation schedule:

• Rolling in last year’s rental schedule was not working correctly.

This release fixes a bug that was reported by a client a few days ago:

• Forms GA, GB & GI: After unsetting PAYG Option 1 or 2, calculation total 5A was not being cleared. This has now been corrected.

This release fixes a bug that was reported by a client yesterday:

• Form EI: The Superannuation Lump Sum Rebate rate had not been updated for 2015. This has now been corrected.

This release fixes a bug that was reported by two clients a day or so ago:

Form EI: Under some circumstances, the Private Health Insurance Rebate Adjustment amount was not being calculated correctly.

• One of the scenarios encountered was for clients that turned either 65 or 70 during the financial year.
• Another scenario was where an older husband and younger wife had separate policies. The wife had a PHI debit on the original estimate since she was in the lower rebate age bracket, but she was entitled to the same rebate as him despite her age.

We were very pleased to be able to release this fix within two days of it being reported.

This release fixes a bug that was inadvertently introduced in release 2015.05:

• On all forms, clicking the help button (“?”) on all forms was causing Microtax to freeze.

We’re very pleased we were able to send this fix out within an hour of it being reported. This really shows the benefit of our new web update method. As we said in the 2015.02 newsletter: “This will enable us to release important updates and bugfixes much faster than in the past.”

The data backup and restore procedures in Microtax have been significantly updated in this release.

Major changes include:

• Now optimized for backing up to hard disk and USB memory stick, not just floppy disk.
• Hard disk backups now also copy your tax return and general ledger data.
• Up to 26 hard disk backup sets (meaning that multiple backups can be made to the same hard disk).
• A simplified method of sending your hard disk backups offsite, in case your office burns down.
• Incremental backups (meaning that only files that have changed since the last backup are copied).

For full instructions on how to do backups, please read the “Backing Up Data” topic in the Microtax Manual. There are also some great tips there to help you organize and get the best out of your backups.

Windows 10
As mentioned in the last newsletter, Microtax is now fully Windows 10 compatible. However, if you upgraded your computer from Windows 7 (or XP or earlier), then you need to reinstall your Cisco VPN software. We have written a complete set of instructions on how to do this. Please contact us at the Help Desk and we will send the instructions out to you.

Bugfixes
There was one minor bug reported by a client that has been fixed in this release:

• Form EI: The wording for label T5 has been corrected.

Microtax version 2015.04 has been released.

The main change is that Microtax has now been updated to be fully compatible with Windows 10, which was released by Microsoft last week. Our initial impression is that Windows 10 looks very stable, and much easier to use than Windows 8.

In addition, there were a number of bug fixes in Microtax:

• Form ET: In the statement of distribution, franked distributions (label U) were erroneously included in non-primary production (label B).
• Forms EF and ET: Item J in Part F of the Losses Schedule was not calculating or printing correctly.
• Client database: The occupation description field (individual client part 2) has been re-enabled.
• BAS statements: Negative (refund due) totals were sometimes not displaying correctly.

Microtax version 2015.03 has been released, with the following bug fixes:

• Form EC: Item J in Part F of the Losses Schedule was not calculating or printing correctly.
• Form EI: The Next/Previous buttons were missing from the work-related deductions screens (D1 etc).
• ELS Communications: Additional error checking has been added to cut down on the number of Autels errors that some clients have reported. Also, the Lodge button is no longer enabled if there are no files to send.

We have already received some great feedback from a client on our new ‘web update’ feature:

“The new upgrade procedure has worked perfectly on both my Windows 7 desktop and Windows 8 laptop. A wonderful and speedy improvement. Thank you.”

Microtax version 2015.02 has been released, with the following changes:

• New “web update” method of upgrading Microtax added
• Screens revised to make them readable on small monitors (640 x 480)
• A number of minor bugs fixed

Microtax version 2014.07 has been released, with the following changes:

• Fringe Benefits Tax (form EB) updated for 2015
• Cisco AnyConnect support added for Windows 8 and 8.1