# Tax Office ‘tip-off line’ runs hot with dobbers



## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

Australian Financial Review, Friday 21 June 2019, page 10

https://www.afr.com/news/policy/tax/tax-office-tip-off-line-runs-hot-20190620-p51zpt
(The article is behind a paywall but the full article is below.)

'Tax Office "tip-off line" runs hot with dobbers' by Tom McIlroy

Australians seeking to dob in suspected tax dodgers are contacting authorities in record numbers, with the Australian Taxation Office receiving nearly 60,000 tip-offs already this financial year.

The call figures, expected to top 70,000 before June 30, include reports of suspected tax evasion, black economy activity and illegal phoenixing by business.

The 42 per cent increase in calls from the previous financial year comes ahead of the opening of a new tax integrity centre on July 1.

New figures published by the Tax Office showed nearly a third of tip-offs included information about under-reporting of income, ahead of cash economy activities and non-lodgement of tax returns.

Reports of employers withholding superannuation and taxpayers overstating their expenses also topped the list. Some workers report employers seeking to take them on as contractors without justification.

In the 2017-18 financial year, there were 51,000 referrals from the public, then the highest number ever received.

ATO Assistant Commissioner Peter Holt said not all referrals from members of public resulted in official audits, but the information could help provide a much needed "missing piece of the puzzle" on critical issues.

He said that the boom in reports was likely linked to increased awareness about tax evasion and efforts to combat Australia's $50 billion black economy.

"I think businesses and the community have had enough of people not doing the right thing," he said.

"We might find someone sees their neighbour or someone in their street appears to be running a business out of their home premises and they might be concerned about that and call us.

"They might see someone acquiring rather expensive assets rather unusually and might tip us off. We try and compare the information with other risk indicators that we have and it may well be that information helps us build a more complete view of the risk."

Mr Holt said the tip-off line was the taxation equivalent of making a report to Crime Stoppers and helped those people trying to make an honest living.

Data from tip-offs can be matched with data already held by the ATO, including comparisons with similar businesses or previous tax returns.

Mr Holt said people making tip-offs didn't need detailed information, and reports could be made based on as simple as a name or the address of a business or home. Improved use of information received from members of the public will be achieved through sophisticated matching and analytics.

"We take tip-offs really seriously. Information is assessed and either referred to an experienced staff member for review or we will run our automated risk profile over that piece of information and start to put together a more holistic view of the information."

The ATO's tax integrity centre is designed to provide a single point of contact for anyone reporting suspected or known illegal phoenix, tax evasion and black economy activity.

It will receive reports any time someone in the community is seeking to gain a competitive advantage by doing the wrong thing.

[end of article]

See also https://www.ato.gov.au/general/the-fight-against-tax-crime/what-you-can-do/.


----------



## JamesBond008 (Mar 26, 2018)

I've been calling to dob in IKEA, Apple, Facebook, Google, Exxon for years and nothing ever happens ATO! What gives? (But dam people claiming $200 for washing their uniform.)


----------



## UberDriverAU (Nov 4, 2015)

JamesBond008 said:


> I've been calling to dob in IKEA, Apple, Facebook, Google, Exxon for years and nothing ever happens ATO! What gives? (But dam people claiming $200 for washing their uniform.)


The ATO does win big cases occasionally. Chevron had to pay $340M in this one:

https://www.afr.com/news/chevron-loses-australias-biggest-tax-case-20170421-gvp8e1
There may well be other transfer pricing cases in the pipeline.


----------



## Krusty (Jan 26, 2018)

Dobbing in criminals to criminals, you know what they say, the government locks up criminals because the don't like competition.


----------



## Waingro (Aug 29, 2016)

Its the myGov cross-referencing that is netting a lot of business.


----------

