All reports are treated as strictly confidential. Information you provide will help ensure the integrity of the ATO.
Further investigation into tip-offs is carried out by specialised teams and taskforces within the ATO, such as: Black Economy Standing Taskforce Illicit Tobacco Taskforce Serious Financial Crime Taskforce Phoenix Taskforce.
The most common is known as 'tax evasion', which is criminalised by with section 61 of the Act. This section stipulates that a person must not by a deliberate act or omission, evade or attempt to evade tax. For a person to be charged, the prosecution must prove all elements described beyond a reasonable doubt.
No – you cannot go to jail if you are unable to pay your taxes in Australia. If the issue is simply that you cannot afford to pay, you will not be imprisoned. However, tax fraud, also known as tax evasion, is a serious crime with the maximum penalty including a term of imprisonment.
If you did pay money or provide sensitive personal identifying information to the scammer, phone us on 1800 008 540 to report it.
Tax whistleblowersOpens in a new window have legal protections when they disclose tax avoidance behaviour and other tax issues to us about an entity they are, or have been, in a relationship with. You can remain anonymous. The online form takes about 15 minutes to complete and you must complete it in one session.
Don't feel embarrassed about reporting a scam – scammers are clever and scams can happen to anyone. Reporting a scam helps track down and stop scammers. This prevents other people from being scammed.
We receive data from a range of sources, including banks, financial institutions and other government agencies. We validate this data and match it against our own information to identify where people and businesses may not be reporting all their income.
Your Australian bank account statements are accessible to the ATO. The ATO is endowed with extensive legal authority, which allows it to access your personal bank information. Because of these capabilities, the ATO is able to get your Australian bank statements straight from your financial institution.
On your tax return, including all capital gains events
If you didn't declare the sale of shares or rental property on your tax return, the ATO might flag your return for a review. Data matching with other government agencies and financial institutions is possible because of ATO's sophisticated technology.
If you know or suspect phoenix, tax evasion or shadow economy activity, report it by: completing the tip-off form – also available in the contact us section of the ATO app. phoning the ATO tip-off hotline on 1800 060 062.
The ATO does not have a prescribed timeframe in which they can determine your objection. However, certain ways may speed up that process. Once finalised, the ATO will then advise you of their objection decision in writing.
The ATO can, and will, check your bank accounts, cross reference payments against an ABN and confirm missing income from your tax return.
Every Australian tax return goes through 20 computer checks, and when the system picks up inaccurate data, it notifies an auditor and triggers a review. These already intense processes grow more sophisticated every year. Indeed, it's never been easier for the ATO to pick up discrepancies.
Centrelink has very wide powers to thoroughly investigate deposits that have been made into your account. For example, it has the power to obtain your information from other government agencies as well as accessing information from banks, building societies and credit union accounts.
Under current Federal legislation, all Australian banks are required to report cash transactions of $10,000 or more (or foreign equivalent), including details of the relevant account holders, to the regulator, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC).
If you are found guilty of Tax Evasion, the maximum penalty is 200 penalty units or 2 years imprisonment or both. In the case of a corporation or business, the fine can be significant. However, the presiding magistrate will take a variety of circumstances into account when sentencing your case.
Received a Garnishee Notice? If you are in debt to the ATO, you may be issued with a garnishee notice on your bank accounts with a demand to pay the ATO within a specified amount of time. Failure to do so can result in your bank accounts being frozen and a suspension on your trading accounts.
On your tax return, Gross Interest is income paid to you from a financial institution (like a bank or building society). If you have a savings account, you probably earned some bank interest. Your bank reports the interest you received – directly to the ATO! The ATO compares that information with your tax return.
Along with transaction data provided to the ATO by conventional banks it should be understood that the ATO now has access to throughput data for a number of other service providers such as BPay, BillBuddy, EziPay, PayPal and many more.
Fraudsters usually hide their identities to evade detection. However, in the same way as transaction records create a path to track stolen funds, the electronic communication methods used to commit the fraud also leave a trail that can be used to identify the perpetrator.
What they want are account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers, and other confidential information that they can use to loot your checking account or run up bills on your credit cards. Identity thieves can take out loans or obtain credit cards and even driver's licenses in your name.
Contact your bank immediately to let them know what's happened and ask if you can get a refund. Most banks should reimburse you if you've transferred money to someone because of a scam.