Penalties For Illegally Claiming JobKeeper Benefits

This is very real and as a reminder, the ATO and the Tax Practitioners Board, who licence tax agents have fired shots across the bow to accountants.  They’ve sent out newsletters and emails to us basically saying, “If you do the wrong thing, you’re risking your registration and obviously fines and penalties.”

Another thing I’ve seen in the accounting community is that accountants are going to be dobbing in other accountants if they see the wrong thing happening.

If the ATO has caught you trying to milk the stimulus measures, you risk not only losing your tax agent registration, they’ll ask you to pay it back and you’ll probably lose all access to any other stimulus measures you are otherwise eligible for.

So not just the JobKeeper if you fudge those numbers but cash flow boosts or others as well. You just don’t want to risk it! The reporting now with the ATO has access to cross-check information that you give them. I think you need to be very careful if you get caught and you say, “Oh, well I didn’t know.” Well, you really need to make sure if you’re going to claim it that you’re eligible.

This is very real and as a reminder, the ATO and the Tax Practitioners Board, who licence tax agents have fired shots across the bow to accountants.  They’ve sent out newsletters and emails to us basically saying, “If you do the wrong thing, you’re risking your registration and obviously fines and penalties.”

Another thing I’ve seen in the accounting community is that accountants are going to be dobbing in other accountants if they see the wrong thing happening.

If the ATO has caught you trying to milk the stimulus measures, you risk not only losing your tax agent registration, they’ll ask you to pay it back and you’ll probably lose all access to any other stimulus measures you are otherwise eligible for.

So not just the JobKeeper if you fudge those numbers but cash flow boosts or others as well. You just don’t want to risk it! The reporting now with the ATO has access to cross-check information that you give them. I think you need to be very careful if you get caught and you say, “Oh, well I didn’t know.” Well, you really need to make sure if you’re going to claim it that you’re eligible.