blog Long-time Australian users of Apple’s flagship Macintosh line will be rapt with the news that the Australian Taxation Office has finally launched a version of its e-tax electronic tax return lodgement software which works on Mac OS X. As first reported by ZDNet (that we know of), the software landed on the ATO’s website this morning. There’s no media release announcing e-tax for Mac that we can find, but if you’re interested in the troubled history of the software’s development, there’s a good article published in July last year by Crikey on the issue. Probably our favourite paragraph:
“Complaints about the ATO’s refusal to acknowledge the existence of Mac and Linux have been rife for a decade or more … pretty much every other country surveyed has conquered the apparently insurmountable problem of allowing non-Windows users to file their tax online.”
ZDNet also has a yarn published this time last year, where the ATO defended its decision to delay the launch of e-tax for Mac OS X for another year. Doubtless the ATO has had the software ready to go for many months, but had to hold off on releasing it until 1 July this year (the new financial year), lest people try and use it to file last year’s tax returns. Either way, it’s good to see that this has finally landed; it’s been a long-held sore spot for Apple fans. To quote Blizzard, when announcing StarCraft II: “Hell … it’s about time.”
Image credit: Apple