Tax office is using simple tricks to catch out cheats

RINGING up employers and businesses, doing simple Google map searches and checking receipts are not falsified are some of the simple ways the taxman is catching out cheats.

For those trying to do the dodgy the ATO has warned they are on high alert.

The Australian Taxation Office’s assistant commissioner, Karen Foat, said they had advanced data matching technology that could catch people out but cheats could sometimes be caught through the simplest of checks.

“If people are claiming large things compared to people in similar jobs and on similar incomes then that’s something we might want to dig a little further on,” Ms Foat told News Corp Australia.

“People often overstate the distance of a trip but it’s pretty easy for our auditors to put in location A and location B into something like Google maps to see how far a trip really is so it’s unwise to state the distance of the trip where we know the location.”

Ms Foat said it was easy for them to calculate real actual distances travelled from home to work – addresses auditors could easily obtain.

Latest ATO statistics showed 3.86 million Australians have lodged their 2019/20 tax returns and more than $6.3bn has been refunded.

The average refund is $2395.

BDO tax partner Mark Molesworth said tax auditors worked around the clock to ensure claims were legitimate.

“You should always assume that the tax office may come and check, particularly if you are making large work-related claims,” Mr Molesworth said.

“They will contact the people you said you paid money to or the places you said you stayed to check that you actually did.”

He said Australians “should assume the tax office is going to check your claim and make sure if you did claim something you did actually spend the money”.

“Always make sure you’ve recorded the expense and you’ve got the documents to prove it and it’s related to your work,” Mr Molesworth said.

“They may also ring your employer and ask if they actually reimbursed your costs, if your employer has reimbursed you that means you can’t claim a tax deduction for that cost.”

Ms Foat said also lying on log books was an easy way to detect cheating – for instance marrying up the information with public holidays and annual leave when the customer was not working.