ATO Security Safeguards for Victims of Fraud Recently Enhanced

Where a taxpayer has been the victim of identity, tax or super fraud, the ATO may apply security safeguards to their account to prevent further harm.  This may require the impacted taxpayer to contact the ATO each time they need to access their information and cause inconvenience for the taxpayer as well as their tax agents.

The ATO has recently enhanced processes to improve ongoing access to ATO online services.  Impacted taxpayers must contact the ATO for initial access and then set a Strong online access strength.

To set a Strong online access strength, taxpayers need to:

• set up their myGovID to a Strong identity strength using their Australian passport;               

• connect their myGovID to their myGov account;

• sign in to myGov with their myGovID; and

• go to ATO online services.

Once set, taxpayers no longer need to contact the ATO every time they access their information.

Impacted taxpayers must continue to use their Strong myGovID whenever they access ATO online services, or account access will be restricted to maintain ongoing protection of client information.

If you have any questions in relation to the matters discussed in this blog, please get in touch with us.