I'm officially horrified....

[Deleted]

So my son did his tax return last year. All his claims were completely legitimate.

They pay him his return and then audit it afterwards. He gets a number of phone calls from a man claiming he's from the ATO. My son tries to return these calls, but can't seem to catch him and never actually speaks to him.

He then goes onto his My Gov site, not a single email, no notifications of an audit, or the outcome, nothing. Only a warning not to speak to people who ring you, claiming their from the ATO because they're scammers. The irony eh?

So then the ATO cancels all his claims, and turns his tax return into a debt. Still no emails. He goes onto the MyGov site and, sees what they've done and rings the ATO. They claim that they sent him a letter, and that is all they needed to do. My son of course never saw this letter, probably half the snail mail sent goes missing these days. But now it is too late to appeal.

Since when is the ATO in the business of punishing hardworking young people?

We've got Centrelink punishing the unemployed

And the ATO punishing people who work.

I'm officially horrified....

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=516670815571771&id=100016865707829

[Denis-NFA]

As much and all as I loathe the ATO and believe they are worse than C/Link there is something not quite right about this story.

Maybe the son is bullsh!tting the mother.

It could easily be fixed.

[Deleted]

Sept 16, 2019 10:38:20 GMT 7 Denis-NFA said:

As much and all as I loathe the ATO and believe they are worse than C/Link there is something not quite right about this story.

Maybe the son is bullsh!tting the mother.

It could easily be fixed.

Agreed Denis-NFA as it is only a story with no solid verification; a Facebook story as well, maybe it should have gone into Chinwag. I just thought the juxtaposition was interesting. Employed, unemployed.....some government agency's going to screw you over; that had a definitive ring of truth to it. Cheers bear

[Denis-NFA]

Sept 16, 2019 12:24:45 GMT 7 bear said:

Agreed Denis-NFA as it is only a story with no solid verification; a Facebook story as well, maybe it should have gone into Chinwag. I just thought the juxtaposition was interesting. Employed, unemployed.....some government agency's going to screw you over; that had a definitive ring of truth to it. Cheers bear

bear

My apologies.

I think it is a highly serious situation and I was too harsh toward the son and something is not right.

It is the first I have ever heard of the ATO making a refund and then conducting an audit and cancelling the refund. I wasn't clear if the refund was actually paid to the son or not.

Normally the ATO just rejects a claim before issuing a notice of assessment which again I am not clear if he received.

On the face of it I would advise mother and son to write up the story and evidence and go and tell a local tax agent who will give you at least 10 to 15 minutes free and see what he says.

I would also be lodging a complaint of theft to the local police even knowing there is probably stuff all they can do about it but you need that for it to be meaningful.

I would then lodge a complaint with the ATO Ombudsman which needs to be done for same reason as going to the police.

Then I would talk with the office of my local Federal member of parliament with all the details.

I would then notify the tax agent, police, ombudsman and federal member that you were going to take the story to the local media with a request to them of how you can draw it to the attention of, say, Alan Jones on 2SM or the ABC or both.

The reality is that just as C/Link have scammers ripping the system off there are similar scum bags preying on ignorant taxpayers. And I don't mean ignorant as in dumb but ignorant as in not knowing how the system works.

Just as nearly all of us were initially naive and ignorant as to how the C/Link system worked for lodging claims.

I don't have a FaceBook account but I hope 'someone' has responded on similar lines as above to the mother.

[Deleted]

Sept 16, 2019 14:37:33 GMT 7 Denis-NFA said:

Sept 16, 2019 12:24:45 GMT 7 bear said:

Agreed Denis-NFA as it is only a story with no solid verification; a Facebook story as well, maybe it should have gone into Chinwag. I just thought the juxtaposition was interesting. Employed, unemployed.....some government agency's going to screw you over; that had a definitive ring of truth to it. Cheers bear

bear

My apologies.

I think it is a highly serious situation and I was too harsh toward the son and something is not right.

It is the first I have ever heard of the ATO making a refund and then conducting an audit and cancelling the refund. I wasn't clear if the refund was actually paid to the son or not.

Normally the ATO just rejects a claim before issuing a notice of assessment which again I am not clear if he received.

On the face of it I would advise mother and son to write up the story and evidence and go and tell a local tax agent who will give you at least 10 to 15 minutes free and see what he says.

I would also be lodging a complaint of theft to the local police even knowing there is probably stuff all they can do about it but you need that for it to be meaningful.

I would then lodge a complaint with the ATO Ombudsman which needs to be done for same reason as going to the police.

Then I would talk with the office of my local Federal member of parliament with all the details.

I would then notify the tax agent, police, ombudsman and federal member that you were going to take the story to the local media with a request to them of how you can draw it to the attention of, say, Alan Jones on 2SM or the ABC or both.

The reality is that just as C/Link have scammers ripping the system off there are similar scum bags preying on ignorant taxpayers. And I don't mean ignorant as in dumb but ignorant as in not knowing how the system works.

Just as nearly all of us were initially naive and ignorant as to how the C/Link system worked for lodging claims.

I don't have a FaceBook account but I hope 'someone' has responded on similar lines as above to the mother.

The many comments and advice run parallel with what you've said Denis-NFA. We can only hope mum follows up on them. Cheers bear