Sarah: $385,000 refund recovered

Name changed to protect privacy.

Sarah came to the Tax Ombudsman after a $385,834.12 tax refund was deposited into an incorrect bank account. Despite attempts by the ATO to recover the money, including escalation to the Reserve Bank of Australia, the refund had not been recovered.

The ATO advised Sarah that its attempts to retrieve the money had been unsuccessful and that it considered it had fulfilled its legal obligations by depositing the refund into the bank account she had nominated. Sarah was also concerned about the lack of transparency around what had been done to recover her money. 

That’s when Sarah came to us.

We investigated whether appropriate administrative action had been taken to retrieve the refund.

Following our intervention, the situation changed. The $385,834.12 was subsequently returned to the ATO, processed and refunded to Sarah.

Outcome: Over $385,000 recovered and returned to Sarah following the Tax Ombudsman’s intervention.