Sole trader cooks the books to inflate GST refunds
Date published
May 2019
Relevant impacts: Financial impact, business impact and industry impact
A sole trader of a home styling business lodged 32 monthly Business Activity Statements with the Australian Taxation Office to fraudulently obtain $138,076 in Goods & Services Tax refunds. The woman supplied false documents to the Australian Taxation Office to support these statements and claims.The woman was convicted of the offences and sentenced to:
- 2 years 9 months home detention
- 150 hours community service
- pay back $137,936.
Related fraudster personas
Related countermeasures
Make sure forms or system controls require mandatory information to support claims or requests.
Verify any requests or claim information you receive with an independent and credible source.
Match data with the authoritative source and verify relevant details or supporting evidence.
Services such as the Identity Matching Service can be used to verify identity credentials back to the authoritative source when the information is an Australian or state and territory government issued identity credential.
This countermeasure is supported by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's Guidelines on data matching in Australian government administration.
Train and support staff to identify red flags to detect fraud, know what to do if they suspect fraud and know how to report it. Fraudsters can take advantage if staff and contractors are not aware of what constitutes fraud and corruption.
These are processes that identify and recover debts owed by staff, customers and third parties.
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