04 June 2018

Scam letters - the Australian Tax Office



There are plenty of scam letters going around in order for people to commit to an action in business / commerce or trade.

To incite the unsuspecting victim, a classic approach is by appealing to necessity, urgency or emotions of the victim with a so called 'statistic' like:

"... 8 out of 10 people ..."

In this case an excerpt from a template letter from the ATO (Australian Tax Office) is shown.

People should be aware that in Australia lodging a personal tax return is a voluntary action. 

If a person has not filed a tax return (formerly agreed to a contractual obligation with the ATO) that person is not obliged nor mandated to conduct a business transaction with the ATO in order to deposit or obtain cash for the purposes of taxation.

If you have not filed such a form within the ATO you are therefore "no longer required to lodge" as mentioned within the template letter, where your response should reflect this.

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