- At least 150 ATO officials investigated in GST fraud crackdown
- A new report from the auditor-general confirms the investigations and resulting actions
- Operation Protego was launched to address the large-scale GST refund fraud
- The scam involved acquiring an ABN for a sham business and submitting false activity statements
- The scam was promoted on TikTok and other social media platforms
- The ATO’s systems to catch GST fraud were found to be lacking in some areas
- The ATO had effective strategies to detect and deal with GST fraud but lacked a procedure for large-scale fraud events
- Operation Protego targeted individuals suspected of fraudulently obtaining GST refunds
- Many of those involved in the scheme were government welfare recipients
- The ATO established committees to address the issue
Source: abc.net.au
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
