Inland Revenue warns people to be aware of scammers this tax season

Wednesday, 17 May 2023

Inland Revenue is warning people to not fall victim to a number of tax scams circulating as tax refunds begin.

This year IR will send about 3.5 million tax assessments, mainly using customer’s myIR accounts as well as through the post. The assessments show whether there is a refund due, a bill to pay or whether the right amount of tax was paid during the 2022/23 tax year.

These will be sent out from late May to the end of July.

But the department warned scammers were quick to try and take advantage of those waiting for a refund, targetting this time of the tax year to try to gain access to bank accounts and other personal information.

”Scammers may call, text or email promising a tax refund if people provide personal details. If it seems too good to be true, it’s probably a scam,” the department said.

Last tax season a woman was scammed out of $41,500 after she received an email purporting to be from IR advising her of a tax refund and asking her to verify her bank details.

The information was sent in real time to the offenders who then logged into internet banking using the customer’s credentials and made three unauthorised payments totalling $41,500 which were unable to be recovered.

Westpac began warning customers to be wary of tax refund and tax bill scams in March.

“Do not click on any links you receive in emails or text messages, it is always safer to type in the address directly to your web browser and navigate from there,” Inland Revenue said.

It said it would ask for bank account details if it didn’t have them, but it would do this securely using a person’s myIR account or through its call centre.

Scammers also tried to create a sense of urgency when asking for money – but people had until February next year to pay an income tax bill.

IR also never put the dollar amount of a refund in an e-mail or text message and would not ask for credit or debit card details in order to pay a refund.