Help listed below are some common questions and answers that may assist you work through your ETC. If a particular question, issue or concern is not listed here please contact us for assistance.
What is Educational Tax Checklist or ETC? How do I sign up? Is the site secure? Is signing up free? How do I activate my account? How do I login? How do I logout? I forgot my password how do I reset it? I forgot my username? How do I change my password? How do I purchase a tax checklist? How do I start using a purchased tax checklist? How do I use the tax checklist? How do I upload my documents? How do I save my ETC changes? Can I stop the 'save changes' prompt from appearing? When finished how do I submit my ETC? What happens after submitting my ETC? Why can't I save my changes? Why can't I login? Why do I get the 'Session Expired' message? Why do I get the 'SESSION EXPIRED - Unable to save changes, please login again' message? Which internet browser should I use? What does this means? What is Educational Tax Checklist or ETC?Is a tailored online education tax service that helps educational staff maximise their deductions with minimal effort.
The ETC online service provides an accessible, faster, more intuitive experience while providing teachers with the ability to step through the checklist in their own time and all from the comfort of your own home or any other location, as long as they have access to the internet.
The Education Tax Checklist system has been servicing teachers Australia wide for over 30 years, so give us a go.
How do I sign up?Signing up is easy!
Visit the ETC home page and click on the 'sign up' button, or 'sign up' link on the top right hand corner of the page.
Fill in the necessary details,
USERNAME: The username must be unique and at least 5 characters long. Once the field turns green it means it's unique.
PASSWORD: The password must be at least 8 characters in length; we encourage the use of complex passwords, try and use numbers, symbols, and a mixture of upper and lowercase letters.
Once all fields have been completed click the 'Register 
' button.
If you wish to cancel click on the '
Cancel' button.
If registration is successful you will see a 'Congratulations' message. If not you will receive and error message. Upon successful registration an email will be sent to your nominated email address requesting you activate your new account.
Is signing up free?YES, signing up is free.
Is the site secure?The site has been secured using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) so all your personal details are transmitted via an encrypted connection.
Look out for the locked '
Padlock', if the padlock is locked then your details are secure.
Some browsers might display a 'KEY' instead of a padlock; this too represents a secure site, if in doubt confirm the URL, i.e., the web address, starts with 'HTTPS', e.g. https://www.specialistax.com.au/ETCPortal/...etc.
How do I activate my account?To activate your account you will typically have received an email with the instructions and the activation link included. If you haven't you can activate your account by going to 'Activate your ETC account'.
Once there enter your USERNAME and PASSWORD, and click the '
Activate' button.
If account activation is successful you will see a 'Congratulations' message. If not you will receive and error message. Only after successful activation will you be permitted to login.
How do I login?To login you will need to head to the 'login' page and enter your USERNAME and PASSWORD in the fields and click on the ' Login' button.
How do I logout?To logout you just need to click on the 'logout' link. This link can normally be found in the top right hand corner of the web page. If logout is successful you will see a 'Congratulations' message. If not you will receive and error message. Once you've logged out you will need to login again in order to access your tax checklists.
I forgot my password how do I reset it?If you have forgotten your password but you still remember your username then you can have your password reset. To reset your password head to the 'Password reset for ETC account' page.
Enter your USERNAME and EMAIL address and click 'Reset'.
If the password reset is successful you will see a 'Congratulations' message. If not you will receive and error message. Upon successful reset an email will be sent to your registered email address detailing the new password.
I forgot my username?If you cannot remember your username then contact us to have your account reset.
How do I change my password?To change your password you must first login to your ETC account, refer to 'how do I login?'. Once you have logged in click on the 'Edit Profile' link located on the top right hand corner of the web page.
Scroll down the page until you reach the PASSWORD and CONFIRM PASSWORD fields, delete the content of both fields and type and re-type in your new password.
REMEMBER: The password must be at least 8 characters in length; we encourage the use of complex passwords, try and use numbers, symbols, and a mixture of upper and lowercase letters.
How do I purchase a tax checklist?To purchase a tax checklist you will need to first sign up, refer to 'how do I sign up?'. Login using your active ETC account, once logged in you will be directed to your ETC Profile page.
Towards the bottom of the page you will see the heading 'Available Educational Tax Checklists'; listed below this heading are the available tax checklists; one for each financial year.
Click the image of the required tax checklist and a series of questions will appear below the image. e.g.
How Many Investment Properties Do You Have?
How Many Business Schedules Do You Have?
Do you wish to take out Audit Shield Service?
The final purchase price will be calculated based upon your answers to each of the questions.
Upon answering the questions you will be presented with a final purchase price and a PayPal button. To complete the purchase click on the PayPal button which will take you to the Education Tax Specialist PayPal site at which point you can pay the amount by either using Visa, Mastercard or PayPal.
Once payment has been processed and confirmed you will immediately have access to the purchased tax checklist by simply heading back to ETC portal site, logging on if not already done so and you will notice that beneath the purchased tax checklist image you will see the words Status: 'Available' displayed.
This means the checklist is now available for you to access and begin filling in.
If you experience any issues during this process please do not hesitate to contact us.
How do I start using a purchased tax checklist?To start using a purchase tax checklist just login to the ETC portal and click on the purchased tax checklist image. The words Status: 'Available', Status: 'In Progress', or Status: 'Submitted' will be displayed underneath a purchased tax checklist depending on its status.
Clicking on the tax checklist image will automatically direct you to the start page of the checklist. At which point you can being filling in and changing input fields as required.
REMEMBER: Changes must be saved before navigating to another page, i.e., '
Back' or 'Next ', or else changes will be lost.
How do I use the tax checklist?While working through the tax checklist users will come across a number of features and elements that are there to assist users in inputting, calculating and select information, i.e., tables, checkboxes, and drop down lists to name a few.
These elements are there to make filling in the tax checklist a more intuitive experience.
A green coloured 
'plus' sign adds rows to a table, a red 
'cross' deletes selected rows or schedules.
Eg, to add a row to a table you must first fill in the necessary fields and then click on the green 'plus' sign. This will add the row to the table. You MUST have your information added to the table, by clicking the green 'plus' sign, before it can be saved.
To delete a row from a table you first must select the row to be deleted by clicking the checkbox at the beginning of the row and then click on the red 'cross' sign.
Drop down lists provide users with a pre-defined list of options for your quick selection and use. Just click on the down pointed arrow to expand the list, by listing all available options. At this point you can change your selection by click on another option from the list.
How do I upload my documents?In order to submit your tax return with the ATO we will be required to view and record particular personal documentation.
Documentation can be submitted from within the ETC via upload features which will be present in the sections requiring documentation.
To upload documents you need to 'browse' to the location of the file, select the file, click 'open', and then click the 'upload' button. The file, if it meets the criteria, will be uploaded to a secure location on the server.
File Criteria
Files uploaded must meet a certain criteria:
Files must be no larger than 1 megabyte (MB), and
Files must be of type GIF, JPG, PNG, or PDF.
PLEASE NOTE: Uploaded files must have unique file names!
If you upload a document with the same name and file type as an existing document on the server, the existing document located on the server will be overwritten.
REMEMBER: If you are not sure about uploading your documentation then you can always send us an email with the necessary documentation attached. Documents sent through to us via emails do not have the same restrictions as uploaded files, restrictions on sent documents are set out by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
How do I save my ETC changes?To save changes as you progress through the tax checklist you must click on the 'Save 
' button, located at the bottom of the page, between the ' Back' and 'Next ' buttons.
If the 'Save ' button is not visible it may be because you are viewing a tax checklist that has been its status set to 'submitted'. Tax checklists can not be modified after submission.
REMEMBER: Where a table is provided to record your information you must add your information to the table before it can be saved.
REMEMBER: Navigating away from a page without saving will result in changes being lost.
REMEMBER: If you find that your changes are not being displayed after a successful save, return to your 'Retun to Profile' page and reload/refresh your webpage, this should resolve the issue, if not contact us.
REMEMBER: If you find that your changes are not being saved even after reloading/refreshing your webpage it may be because you have used the the character '&' (ampersand) in your text. This character is considered a special character within webpages/xml. You may look to replace the character with the word 'and' this should resolve the issue, if not contact us.
Can I stop the 'save changes' prompt from appearing?Each time you navigate to the next page you receive a prompt asking if you have saved your changes, aka 'save changes' prompt. This feature is on by default.
To have this feature turned off go to 'Edit Profile' (top right hand corner), navigate to the bottom of the page to 'Education Tax Checklist Account Settings' and uncheck the checkbox to have the 'save prompt' feature disabled.
When finished how do I submit my ETC?Once you have completed a tax checklist and confirmed that all your details and information is accurate you can go to the last page of the tax checklist and click on the 'Submit ' button.
Once submitted you will no longer be able to make any changes to your tax checklist. An email will be sent to you confirming the submission of your tax checklist.
What happens after submitting my ETC?After submitting your tax checklist:
ETS will process the information in your tax checklist through our tax software to produce your taxation return.
The tax return will be checked by us and the tax agent's certificate completed.
The taxation return will be sent to you in duplicate. You will sign the original tax return and send it to this office.
When should you expect your assessment? On electronic lodgement of the taxation office works on 14 day refund. Our experience proves that 80% of return lodged this way have in fact issued within that time.
If you're dissatisfied, you have 60 days in which to object to an assessment.
Why can't I save my changes?Refer to 'How do I save my ETC changes?'
Why can't I login?To login you must:
Have your username and your password. If you cannot remember your password then check out 'I forgot my password how do I reset it?'. If you cannot remember your username then contact us to have your account reset.
Have an active ETC account. If you haven't activated your account then check out 'How do I activate my account?'
Have typed in your password correctly. The password is case sensitive, so make sure you don't have Caps Locks on and that you are typing it in correctly. The username is not case sensitive.
If you are still unable to login then please contact us for assistance.
Why do I get the 'Session Expired' message?The 'Session Expired' message means that you have been logged on and inactive for too long. You will need to re-login in order to continue.
Why do I get the 'SESSION EXPIRED - Unable to save changes, please login again' message?Refer to 'Why do I get the 'Session Expired' message?'
Which internet browser should I use?The ETC has been designed on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge.
ETC requires your browser to be 'javascript' enabled, click here for more information and steps on enabling javascript for IE and Firefox.
To install the latest Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge web browser.
What does this means?ASS - Audit Shield Service
ETS - Education Tax Specialist
ETC - Education Tax Checklist
FY - Financial Year
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