Services and support for tax professionals
Getting started on
the Tax Agent Portal
New to the portal? Start here.
1. Tax Agent Portal (tap.ato.gov.au)
The portal is a secure website protected by AUSkey, an online
security credential. If you don’t have an AUSkey, follow the link
on the welcome page to register or go to abr.gov.au/AUSkey/
registering-for-AUSkey/.*
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2. Log in to the portal
Log in to the portal by clicking the Login button. Once you have
logged in you will be taken directly to the portal home page.
*If you have an AUSkey, skip this step and log in.
3. Find your way around
Use the left-hand menu to access key functions*
Your details: Your current details will show here. If
they are wrong, contact the Tax Practitioners Board
(tpb.gov.au).
Your dealings: Check the status of enquiries you
have sent us including portal mail, forms, refunds
and transfer requests.
Reports: Reports are available to show your clients’
activities with us, including account balances,
PAYG instalments, pre-filling and many more. See
ato.gov.au/Tax-professionals/Tax-Agent-Portal/
Using-the-Tax-Agent-Portal/Portal-reports/
Online forms: Lodge a range of forms via the
portal. For details see ato.gov.au/Tax-professionals/
Tax-Agent-Portal/Using-the-Tax-Agent-Portal/
Online-forms/
*The items in your menu will vary depending on your access.
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Connect with us
Favourites: Add, delete and view your commonlyused websites from the portal.
Your clients: Access your clients’ information. Use
this to add, remove or update clients, and more.
Mail: Communicate securely with us on a range
of topics.
Access manager: If you have several staff who
need to access the portal, use Access manager
to set up their authorisation and permissions. Visit
am.ato.gov.au/amsupport/pages/welcome.htm
File transfer: Lodge files generated from
your software (type of files that can be sent
are limited). For more information see ato.gov.au/
Tax-professionals/Tax-Agent-Portal/Using-the-TaxAgent-Portal/Portal-file-transfer/
Current at February 2016
Find us on social media ato.gov.au/findus
Visit ato.gov.au
4. Customise your portal – Add your clients and set up your Mail
Add your clients*: Select Your clients from the
menu, then Add client. Choose if they are an
individual or other entity.
You will need a range of identification information for
the client. For help adding clients see ato.gov.au/
Tax-professionals/Tax-Agent-Portal/Using-the-TaxAgent-Portal/Your-clients/Adding-and-removing-aclient/
*You can only add clients after they have authorised
you to act on their behalf.
Set up your portal mail to send and receive
messages from us.
Select Mail from the left menu. You will be taken
to your Inbox by default. Turn on your email
notifications*.
The mail function allows you to send enquiries to
us on a number of messaging subjects. A subject
expert will reply to your message. For more help
with Mail, visit ato.gov.au/Tax-professionals/
Tax-Agent-Portal/Using-the-Tax-Agent-Portal/
Portal-mail/
*This will automatically send an email to your nominated
email address when you receive portal mail.
Portal Help (ato.gov.au/TAPHelp)
Useful resources
Help – Select Help from any portal page and you’ll get
step‑by‑step instructions relevant to the page you are on. The
Help link is available on the top right-hand corner of each page
in the portal.
Step-by-step videos – A suite of six videos about commonlyused portal functions is available to support you. Find these
videos at ato.gov.au/Tax-professionals/Tax-Agent-Portal
How do I? – Portal Help has a range of step-by-step guides
outlining how to do tasks in the portal.
A-Z Index – The A-Z Index in Portal Help will help you find
information related to your activity.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ) – Portal Help also
lists frequently asked questions and answers for a number
of topics.
Tax Agent Portal Dashboard – Use the dashboard for updates
on the availability and performance of the Tax Agent Portal.
Access it at tap.status.ato.gov.au
System issues – Keep up-to-date with system issues via our
email and SMS Tax professionals alerts – subscribe now. You
can also check our system maintenance
(ato.gov.au/General/Online-services/System-Maintenance/) and
troubleshooting (ato.gov.au/General/Online-services/Technicalsupport/Troubleshooting-for-businesses-and-tax-practitioners/)
webpages.
Compare our online services – Take advantage of our online
services guide to work out how best to complete your query
or transaction online. Visit ato.gov.au/TPOnlineGuide