Australia’s new electronic tax payments systems were used by a record 3 million people in the past year, according to the Australian Tax Office annual report published this week.

It said that 2.8 million used the e-tax system, which is for more complicated business taxes, while a further 750,000 used the new mytax system, launched this May for personal taxes.

The mytax platform was also linked to the myGov system run by the Department of Human Services, which gives citizens a single portal for all transactions with central government.

The report says that 2.4 million myGov accounts were linked to the ATO by 30 September. Earlier this year, the myGov service crashed on the first day of the new financial year.

Overall, the ATO received 20.7 million payments electronically, with only 1.4 million received manually. Paper-based lodgements have declined by 36% since 2012.

The annual report set out the agency’s plans for the future. It committed to using voice biometric technology for proof of identity when conducting telephone transactions, and using electronic taxpayer notice of assessments in mid-2015.

It also committed to make interactions “digital by default”, creating systems that can be tailored for taxpayers and prevent them from making mistakes.

Last year the ATO launched a mobile app providing tax information and calculators, which was downloaded more than 196,000 times.