The Australian Tax Office is a pretty conservative organisation.
It’s probably not as contemporary as it should or could be, but the organisation is working on that, Matthew Hay Assistant Commissioner for strategic program service delivery told a packed room at the Xerocon event in Sydney today.
(Yes. The tax breakout session at Xerocon was so full people were sitting on the floor.)
Hay outlined some of the tech advancements the ATO has implemented – they’re all pretty basic including online lodgement advancements and a new news website for tax practitioners.
But one tech development the tax office has implemented is interesting: as of last week, it’s using voice identification to verify some Australian taxpayers.
This means instead of calling up and reciting your date of birth, first pet’s name, and address, all you need to do is talk. The system will pick up your voice print, Hay said.
“If you called as of last Friday our superannuation help line you will be able to register your voice print,” Hay said.
“When you subsequently call, instead of going through a quite stringent proof of identity process – quoting tax file numbers and all that sort of thing – we will actually just authenticate you through your voice print.
“We want to increase and use voice authentication more broadly.”
We hope the tech is better than voice recognition other organisations have implemented because waiting on hold to the tax office is painful enough as it is.
Republished from Business Insider Australia.