Simpler company reporting reforms being rolled out by the Federal Government will save business close to $800 million a year, Corporate Law Minister Chris Bowen says.
The Government released new Standard Business Reporting (SBR) taxonomy and tools on Tuesday so that software developers can begin building programs for their business and accounting systems.
Mr Bowen said this was a ''significant milestone'' towards the Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) seamless national economy reform agenda, established to cut red tape for business and increase productivity.
''Existing reporting requirements impose a significant burden on Australian businesses, with many often having to report the same or similar information to 12 Australia, state and territory government agencies,'' Mr Bowen said in a statement.
''Australian businesses will save close to $800 million annually when SBR is fully operational, with implementation to begin in July 2010.''
The program reduces the amount of information being reported through standardised definitions, helping to make reporting to government a by-product of normal recordkeeping done by business operators, and developing a secure single sign-on to lodge reports.
''A key frustration of business is wasting time sending the same or similar information in different formats to each government agency,'' Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said in the joint statement.
''The SBR program has identified the potential to reduce the number of individual pieces of data businesses have to track, analyse and report by 71 per cent.''
The latest release includes the Australian Tax Office (ATO) business activity statement, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) copy of financial statements and reports, and the NSW payroll tax monthly return.
The September SBR package will include the ATO Pay as you go (PAYG) withholding payment summaries, ATO Tax File Number Declaration, ATO Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) Return forms and the WA payroll tax monthly return.