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Australian Taxation Office website crashes minutes into new financial year as taxpayers lodge returns, access super

The West Australian
VideoAssistant Tax Commissioner Karen Float joined Sunrise to reveal how to get the most from your return.

The Australian Tax Office website crashed just minutes into the new financial year as taxpayers rushed to lodge returns.

People have flooded the ATO’s Twitter feed to complain of the site fail, with some experiencing difficulties as early as 12.14am.

On top of tax returns, Australians were also looking to access the second round of the Early Release Super Scheme — where Australians can withdraw up to $10,000 from their super.

Users were instead hit with an error message that read:

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“We are currently experiencing a high volume of traffic. We apologise for the inconvenience. We understand significant numbers of people need to access our services. We are proactively managing our online traffic so that systems continue to be available.

“Thanks you for your patience at this time. Please try again later”

Social media users were furious: “Seriously you had one job”, one posted.

“Shocker. 9.30am on the first of July and the site has crashed. If only you’d had some kind of warning that a lot of people would be trying to use it, with a date that volume may be expected to start, wrote another.

An ATO spokesperson said they were aware people trying to lodge their tax return or an application for early release of super were currently experiencing issues with its systems.

“We are investigating this as a priority, and our technicians are working to resolve the issue,” they said.

“If you are experiencing issues, there's no need to call and report it.

“We appreciate your patience at this time.”

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