The Australian Taxation Office is urging all businesses and individuals to take care in relation to avoiding the risk of fraud.
With a focus on criminals lodging fraudulent returns in order to obtain unwarranted refunds through accessing banking information that is not their own, the ATO recommends businesses and individuals practice the following:
Discussions with staff and clients
Keep your employees and your clients about safe behaviours to protect them from being vulnerable to criminals, such as not clicking on downloads, hyperlinks or opening attachments in unsolicited emails.
Protection on devices
Ensuring the devices you use for confidential information such as transferring funds and purchasing goods and services are all up to date with protective software, such as malware detectors and firewalls. Also, ensure autofill forms are not saved or used.
Proof of identity
Before taking on new clients, ensure they provide numerous pieces of proof of identity. You should also question discrepancies before lodging their tax returns.
Internal security
Ensure all employees have access to only what they need in order to perform their role within the company. When employees cease employment, cancel their AUSkeys.
If you’re not close to retiring, you may not be thinking about your super or where it is. Even if you are a way off from retiring, you should be keeping track of where your super has gone. $17.5 billion of super was lost in 2017-18, $420 million down from the previous year. If you are not paying attention to your super contributions, accounts and insurances, you may have lost super. You may also have unintentionally lost track of super if you have ever changed your name, address, job or lived overseas.
It is not uncommon for people to have multiple super accounts they have acquired over the years of working at different companies. Having multiple unused accounts can result in high fees that drain your untouched super or you could lose track of it completely. It is in your best interest to consolidate all super into one account that suits your retirement goals. When closing unused accounts, you should be mindful of any termination fees, insurance policies, investment options, and ongoing service fees.
If you have lost track of your super it may be held by either your super fund as a lost account or as an ATO-held account. The easiest way to consolidate super is through the myGov website, linking the ATO to records of your super funds
