At 02:12 8/09/00 -0400, William J. Kammerer wrote (was: "Re: Stupid EDI
Stories, AND the ISA and GS Version numbers"):
>Thanks to everyone for your stupid EDI stories...keep them coming...
THE ZERO CHARACTER PROBLEM:
The Australian Government introduced tax reforms with much fanfare on 1
July 2000, including e-payment to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). A
few days later I remitted tax by direct credit to the ATO, as per the
instructions on their web site. This was done using Internet banking and
the receipt from the transaction showed the correct Reference Number
entered in the description field. The next day the ATO called to ask what
the money was for, as nothing had been received in the description field.
Now if several million people pay several billion dollars in tax this way,
how many phone calls will be needed to sort it out?
For more details see my e-commerce lecture notes for Australian National
University students this semester: "The Eighteen Character Problem:
Metadata, Electronic Document Management and the Digital Library for
E-commerce: http://www.tomw.net.au/2000/ecp.html
Tom Worthington FACS [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
http://www.tomw.net.au PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617
Visiting Fellow, Computer Science, Australian National University
Publications Director & Past President, Australian Computer Society
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