GST refund fraud attempts

The ATO has identified a significant number of GST refund fraud attempts

The attempted fraud involves:

• Inventing a fake business

• Submitting fictitious business activity statements (BAS) to gain a false GST refund.

• Lodging a fraudulent Australian business number (ABN) application, and

If you are not operating a business, you do not need an ABN, and you don’t need to lodge a BAS

Backdating your business registration so you can apply for a refund will flag you as high risk in the ATO systems

False declarations may impact eligibility for other government payments.

The ATO has the data matching ability to detect these patterns and stop the fraud.

Any person is liable to repay the entire amount of any fraudulently-obtained GST refund, regardless of what you paid someone to lodge a BAS on your behalf.

Selling or sharing your myGov credentials may result in other people accessing your personal information and using it for their financial gain.