Creepy moment with ATO! Don’t use My gov for tax

Last week I was finalising my tax returns which are normally worked out on paper by my in house accountant, inputted to the myGov ATO portal, checked by me and then sent.

I checked the figures and she had entered my PPOR in for capital gains also, it would not take details on one of my investment properties in Melbourne. The PPOR was a simple mistake as I did not live there for the last two years and we deleted the property before saving. The more difficult one was that one of the properties was pre entered by the ATO and the address A’Beckett St, would not save the details.
I rang the ATO and after identifying myself asked about the problem with A’Beckett St. the reply was simple, it would not retain the information as the address had been entered with an apostrophe and I couldn’t remove it as it was pre-entered by the ATO. She then asked, why is your Capital Gains tax income $10 million lower now than it was earlier today.
This horrified me, as they can obviously see all working out and corrections placed on the website. Everything you input is recorded and obviously alerts them if changes are made. This spying on the working out is a *******ly act and should not be allowed. I hate being audited as last time it took two staff members 2 days to photocopy and send off over 600 pages of receipts. It also involved questioning my agent as to why I was receiving $100 per week rent for a $4 million property.
Was anyone aware that they can see each correction you make on the form and something must trigger a warning. I though only by pressing the lodge button could they see what was written and not all the drafts you have worked on and corrected.
Needless to say but because of the “ ‘ “ and the privacy breach, I now use the simple written tax forms.

 

I'm amazed that this is a surprise to you.

Common sense by the ATO to check whether people are trying to game their tax returns.

Do you use Google or Apple for anything, because they are way creepier than this.

 

1. It also involved questioning my agent as to why I was receiving $100 per week rent for a $4 million property.
   
   ...Sounds like this agent is a good juggler at trying to keep several time bombs in the air at same time as all are wired to go off at the same time..

 

Why do you receive $100 rent on a 4 mill property? You don't have to answer me I'm just curious.

RE saving inputs on form fields, it's done a lot, don't be surprised by it. The operator should not be questioning you about it though, if you make a simple mistake (two extra 0's) .. you make a mistake.. if you input a value you see yourself at in 5 years to see how it affects your tax .. who cares.

The ATO should be taking the final as the final anyway, that's the return you agree has the full correct information.

 

Google nor apple do not talk to me about changes that I make on my working figures. Also they don’t have the power to make me waste hundreds of man hours proving facts.
Plus I quite like them directing the onscreen advertising at what I might want. It’s always hard to make a decision on where to buy my Canadian Meds.

 

I’ll give you the same answer as I gave them, ( but for a different property)
Google Earth “10 Alan Street, Box Hill NSW” it has no power and no water.
How much would you pay in rent if you had to keep the lawn mowed under the lease?”
I purchased this one for $2.88m and lease for $50 per week. The house has no power, water or floors. I call it a storage shed. If I left it vacant then I couldn’t claim council rates and Land Tax of about $45k per annum, nor the interest on the mortgage.

 

These and several other issues are known by most tax agents. MyTax contains a lot of hidden and secretive detection mechanisms that look at behaviours and changes. Keystroke editing is one. Another is taxpayers who use their MyTax to "model" return changes etc. This can trigger a higher level review.

Are you saying another person who is not a registered tax agent also entered data ? This is actually a breach of the rules and can be detected through device IP address reporting. Rogue IP addresses associated with other returns etc can escalate a higher level risk. Some VPNs also get the user locked out of MyGov (as MyGov cant be used from offshore for all actions) Its more likely that this was the initial issue that started the monitoring of keystroke changes to the return.

Its not a privacy breach at all. It is a risk assessment and management tool. You self breached privacy by allowing another person to access your MyTax return data. As a tax agent I am absolutely prohibited from access to a client MyGov or MyTax login and anyone who asks may well be a unregistered agent or assisting a taxpayer while unregistered. Tax Agents who have genuine reason to access client files have other ways to access SOME data and make changes.

 

Did you get tax advice on doing this ?
From 1 July 2019 the issue may become worse. New laws given assent 3 days ago strip the deductibility and impact if they can even be capitalised.

https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInf...p;query=Id:"legislation/billhome/r6369";rec=0

 

EDIT. IT is not an offence for anyone to assist in filling out the myGov forms with the authorisation of the tax payer. The offence is if this person lodges the form, not completes the typing of the form.

 

That is either the wrong link or it is not relevant to renting a property at market value for an indefinite period of time until it is resold. I am aware that it is not tax effective to rent a property below market value for the benefit of a friend or relative. The tax office went to the agent and questioned them about my relationship with the tenant.

 

The offence relates to the use of MyGov and MyTax. You read the T&C ?
Only the taxpayer may use it. Anyone can assist you provided there is no fee. But entry of information to a return is a tax agent service if they arent the taxpayer.

If a person is a staff member I believe they may be incapable of also acting as a tax agent in a different capacity and complying with the code of conduct.

The ATO has increasingly stronger mechanisms to detect external parties accessing personal information or illegally assisting to prepare a return. The MyTax return does not contain the required agent lodgement declarations as well. I recall a recent TPB case where a tax agent was struck off for using client MyTax to lodge returns and also amending lodged returns to inflate deductions and claim refunds to their own bank account. Agent tried to blame clients for the MyTax changes. The ATO also monitor certain profiles involving bank account changes. It can indicate risk concerns. eg a new Ip address. I had a client with a locked refund caused by this after a genuine fraud was detected. Seems the ATO didnt believe our EFT details change and froze the refund pending a direct call from the taxpayer. The ATO had a voice ID added to the account and all in now OK. Once the ATO would change TFNs but now they do a lot more.

 

Renting a shed for $50 a week on a lot of high value ($2.8m+) otherwise vacant land is most certainly (now) affected unless the owner is a company. Related or not. The rent relates to the use of the shed, not the land. It may well be market rate. The shed is not a substantial permanent structure. It fails the test for residential premises....I would revisit this. As of 1 July 2019 its a new issue.

I have a separate new thread on this new law

Tax Deductions for "Vacant Land"

 

That makes more sense to me and I’ll reply on the main thread.