Criminals are increasingly turning to the dark web to promote tax fraud, amid a nearly $600 million GST compliance crackdown aimed at lifting GST collections by $7.6 billion over the next five years.

The Tax Office aims to refund legitimate GST claims within 12 days, but an explosion in fraudulent claims totalling nearly $4 billion has put the spotlight on how digitisation is enabling scammers to rapidly exploit Australia’s self-assessment tax system.