How the ATO knows if you’re cheating on your taxes

Thanks to its data matching work, big brother is watching, and in this case, big brother is the Australian Taxation Office.

Michelle BowesWealth reporter

Jun 10, 2025 – 5.00am

Email LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber?

If you’ve logged into your MyGov account to complete your tax return in recent years – or sat across from your accountant while they’ve done this on your behalf – you will know that an increasing number of the fields are filled in before you start the task.

If you feel like the Taxation Office knows more and more about your financial affairs with each passing year, you’d be correct.

Michelle Bowes writes about personal finance from our Sydney newsroom. She has been a business journalist for 25 years and is the author of Money Queens: Rule your Money, an award-winning personal finance book for teenage girls.