The ATO has advised it has recently had a number of reported instances where tax agents are being approached to unknowingly lodge fraudulent income tax returns on behalf of clients using false payment summaries.

What to look for

This often occurs between July and September and the clients may be first time lodgers with the tax agent.

Payment summaries or other employment documentation are often realistic copies of genuine documents, with legitimate details, such as TFN, payer name and matching ABN. Other fraudulent documents provided to tax agents have been in other formats, such as hand written documents.

Generally the returns are quite simple with deduction claims only, but in some cases spouse offsets are also involved.  The claims for deductions are often excessive and higher than would be expected for that occupation.

The tax agent should be aware where they have a number of these new clients, they will use the same employer and the claims have some numerical similarity.

What you need to do

The ATO recommends that if a tax agent notices suspicious behaviour from a new client,  they take extra precautions to ensure the taxpayer is legitimate.

If the tax agent can't confirm the client's payment summary and claims are authentic, the ATO further recommends the tax agent should explain to their client their responsibility as a registered tax agent and decline to prepare or lodge the tax return.

Tax agents can report suspicious behaviour to the ATO confidentially, by phoning 1800 060 062 between 8.00am and 6.00pm, Monday to Friday.