This tax season, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) is using more advanced computers to detect suspicious and fraudulent tax returns. 
ATO director Ross Barns explains that their auditing system continues to be refined in an effort to effectively handle the 12 million+ individual tax returns they process each year.
Currently, a series of 20 computer models are run on every tax return, with flags raised when taxpayers’ data looks be suspicious.
The ATO reports that, during the past financial year, their systems have reviewed more than 11 million tax returns – with flags raised on 29,526 tax returns. This prevented $132 million being wrongly paid to taxpayers in erroneous and fraudulent returns.
While the ATO acknowledges that errors often occur on one’s tax return by accident, there is no leniency for those who attempt to file a larger tax return than they are entitled to.
If you are unsure about any aspect of your tax return, send an email to your accountant via the “My Etax messages” within our online tax return. Wrong or missing information on your return could lead to delays in receiving your refund or even auditing by the ATO.
At Etax Accountants our highly qualified staff are trained to help. Remember our goal is to minimise the amount of tax you have to pay and maximise your refund.