The ATO said the security of clients’ tax and super information is very important that is why it is adding an extra control into the process for how tax agents link to new clients or change authorisations for some existing clients.
Recent data breaches in Australia highlighted the urgent and growing need to protect the identities of Australians from identity-related theft. Identity crime is disruptive and distressing for those who fall victim. Tax agents, BAS agents, and payroll service providers are not immune to fraud and identity theft.
The ATO ran a successful pilot for this new process in mid-2022 that included some of the top 100 and top 1,000 public and multinational businesses.
From 13 December 2022, the ATO will extend the process to most public and multinational businesses and businesses in the top 500 privately owned wealthy groups, where that group has a significant level of ownership.
The new process will progressively apply to more taxpayers.
The ATO said it is extending the processes to stay ahead of increasing efforts by criminals to impersonate legitimate users to lodge fraudulent tax returns or gain access to data that they can make money from and further strengthening its front-end controls will help protect agents and their clients.
It will also ensure that only an authorised agent or payroll service provider can link to clients’ accounts and access their tax and super affairs as well as give tax agents more confidence about the identity of a new client and bring the ATO’s processes more into line with best practice and community expectations.
The new client-to-agent linking process requires clients to complete an agent nomination in online services for business. Tax agents can then link or change authorisations in the ATO online services as normal. There will be no impact on existing client links.
The ATO said it is consulting with agents and industry representatives to ensure it takes taxpayers’ and agents’ needs into account and to work out how it can best balance security with ease of use of the process.
Detailed information and support materials are available on the ATO website at client-to-agent linking in online services.
