In early December 2011, the Tax Office began issuing letters to trustees who havelodged a TFN report from June 2011 onwards from which the Tax Office has been unable to identify beneficiaries.  If you receive one of these letters, the Tax Office advises that you should obtain the correct details from the beneficiary and provide the Tax Office with a TFN Report with the updated details.

Where a beneficiary fails to quote their TFN, or is taken not to have quoted their TFN, or is taken not to have quoted their TFN, the trustee is required to withhold tasx at the top marginal rate plus Medicare levy (46.5% in total) on any payments made to them from the trust.

Where a TFN report has been lodged and a trustee does not receive a letter, trustees can consider their TFN reporting obligations to have been discharged.

The Tax Office has noticed a significant spike in scam activity in recent times.  Its online security page is constantly updated with the latest email scams.  It also includes information about:

To access the online security page go to http://www.ato.gov.au/contents/62347.htm

A phishing email claiming to be from the Tax Office is currently circulating.  The email contains links that, when clicked, attempt to install malware on your computer.  As the Tax Office explains:

      Phishing is a common method that scammers use to obtain personal details such as your usernames, passwords

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