Tax Return Lodged Without Your Consent: What to Do Now

The first hour: secure the account and preserve the evidence

Whatever happened, the first steps are the same. Do them in this order and do them before you ring the agent, because once an agent knows there is a complaint coming, records have a way of changing.

1. Check your lodgement history. Sign in to myGov, open ATO online services and go to your income tax lodgements. For each year, note whether it shows as lodged, the date it was lodged, whether it was lodged by an agent or by you, the assessment result and whether a refund was issued.
2. Find out who is linked to you. In your profile, check which registered tax agent is listed against your account. Also check the financial institution details the ATO holds for refunds. If the agent name means nothing to you, or the bank account is not yours, stop treating this as a dispute with your accountant and jump to the identity compromise section below.
3. Remove the agent's authority. If online services let you remove the agent link yourself, do it. If not, phone the ATO, explain that returns were lodged without your authorisation, ask for the agent's authority to be removed and ask for a note to be placed on your record so that no further agent lodgements are accepted without checks. Write down the date, time and the reference number of that call.
4. Keep copies of everything. Download each notice of assessment and each lodged return as PDFs. Screenshot the lodgement history and the agent details page as they appear right now, with the date visible. Save every email, text message, engagement letter, invoice and portal message from the agent. If you have call logs showing you never spoke to them around the lodgement dates, keep those too.
5. Ask the agent in writing, once. A short email asking them to explain why the returns were lodged, what declaration they hold from you, and to send you a copy of the lodged returns and the declaration. Keep it factual. Their reply, or their silence, becomes evidence.

Resist the urge to lodge an amendment yourself tonight. Until you know exactly what was claimed and why, an amendment can make a bad return worse and can muddy the record of who did what.

Why lodging without your declaration is a breach

A registered tax agent cannot lodge a return in your name on their own say so. Before lodging, they must obtain your declaration that the information in the return is true and correct and that you authorise them to lodge it. That declaration can be signed on paper, approved electronically through a client portal, or confirmed in another recorded form, but it has to exist, it has to be given before lodgement, and the agent has to keep it.

If no declaration exists, the agent has lodged without authority. That is not a paperwork slip. It goes to the core of the agent's obligations under the Code of Professional Conduct that registered agents must follow: acting lawfully, acting in the client's best interests, and taking reasonable care. Lodging first and asking you to sign afterwards does not cure it. Nor does an old engagement letter from years ago, unless it clearly authorised lodgement of that specific return on those specific figures.

Common ways people discover this:

• A refund lands in your account for a year you had not got around to doing, or a bill arrives for one.
• You left an accountant mid way through the year and they lodged anyway, sometimes for several years at once, sometimes with a fee deducted from the refund.
• A bookkeeper or BAS agent who was only ever engaged for BAS lodged your income tax return as well.
• A family member's accountant lodged yours "to be helpful" because your details were in their file.
• The agent lodged a return showing a large refund that they then collected through a fee from refund arrangement, and you only saw the remainder.

Who you complain to, and what each body actually does

Three different organisations can be involved, and they do different things. Complaining to the wrong one, or only one, is the most common reason these matters drag on.

Keep every complaint factual: what was lodged, when, what you did and did not authorise, what evidence you have, and what you want to happen. Attach the screenshots and PDFs you saved in the first hour. You can run the TPB and ATO complaints in parallel; they do not wait for each other.

The harder question: are the returns themselves wrong?

An unauthorised lodgement and an incorrect return are two different problems. Some people find the agent lodged without asking but the figures are basically right, in which case the complaint is the main event and the assessment can stand. Others find returns padded with work related expenses, car claims, donations, home office hours or rental deductions they never incurred, often because inflating the refund made the fee from refund arrangement more lucrative. Occasionally income is missing instead, which creates a tax shortfall you will eventually have to pay.

Go through each lodged return line by line against what you actually earned and spent. Your income statement, bank records, interest and dividend statements and any real receipts are the test. Mark every amount you cannot substantiate.

If the returns contain claims you did not make

• Amend through a new registered agent. Each affected year needs an amendment request that corrects the figures to what you can actually support. A new agent can lodge amendments for multiple years and keep the story consistent across them. Amendments must be made within a limited time window; if a year falls outside it, an objection may be the route instead, which is a different and more formal process.
• Make a voluntary disclosure. Telling the ATO about the overclaimed amounts before it contacts you about them is treated far more favourably than waiting for a review. Voluntary disclosure can substantially reduce any administrative penalty that would otherwise apply to the shortfall. The amendment and the disclosure usually go in together, with a clear explanation that the return was lodged by an agent without your authority or input.
• Claim the safe harbour for agent caused errors. Where you gave your registered agent all the relevant and accurate information and the false or misleading statement arose from the agent's carelessness, a safe harbour can protect you from the administrative penalty on the shortfall. Where you gave the agent nothing at all because you never engaged them for that return, the argument that the error is the agent's and not yours is stronger still. You still have to pay the shortfall tax itself, and interest may still apply, but a well put case can remove the penalty and support a request to remit interest.
• Do not hide the refund. If a refund you were not entitled to was paid to you, do not spend it. If it was paid to the agent or to a third party account, say so clearly in the disclosure so the ATO chases the right person.

If the returns are right but unauthorised

You can leave the assessments in place, pursue the complaint, and move your affairs to a new agent. Check that any fee deducted from your refund matches an engagement you actually agreed to; if it does not, dispute it with the agent in writing and include it in your TPB complaint.

When a stranger or ex partner lodged in your name

If the agent on your account is nobody you have ever dealt with, if the refund bank account is not yours, or if the return was lodged through myGov itself from a device you do not own, you are dealing with identity compromise rather than a rogue accountant. Common patterns include an ex partner who still has your TFN and myGov details, a family member who "did your tax" and kept the refund, and organised refund fraud using stolen identity documents.

1. Contact the ATO's client identity support service. The ATO has a dedicated process for people whose identity has been misused for tax purposes. It can place additional security on your record, flag unauthorised lodgements, deal with diverted refunds, and tell you what it needs from you. Do this before anything else; the longer a fraudulent lodgement sits, the more the ATO treats the account as compromised.
2. Lock down myGov. Change your myGov password from a device you trust. Review your sign-in options and remove any phone number, email or authenticator app you do not recognise. Switch to the strongest sign-in method available. Check the list of linked services and unlink anything you did not link. If you cannot get in because the details have been changed, use the myGov account recovery process and tell the ATO that your myGov access has been taken over.
3. Correct the refund bank account. Check the financial institution details on your ATO record and change them to an account only you control. Note the old details for your report.
4. Check for a second myGov account. Fraudsters sometimes create a new myGov account and link it to the ATO using your identity details. Ask the ATO to check for and remove any link you did not create.
5. Report it. Make a police report and keep the reference number; the ATO and your bank may ask for it. Report online identity theft to the national cybercrime reporting service. If your driver licence, passport or other documents were used, follow the issuing agency's process for compromised documents.
6. Watch the rest of your financial life. A compromised TFN rarely travels alone. Check your bank accounts, superannuation login and credit report for anything you did not do.

If your ex partner is the person who lodged, it is still identity misuse. The fact that they once had your consent to do your tax does not carry forward. Keep the communication in writing and do not negotiate the refund privately before the ATO has recorded the lodgement as unauthorised.

What a new accountant will need to untangle it

Taking over a file like this is slower than a normal onboarding because the new agent has to reconstruct what should have been lodged, not just lodge the next thing. Having the following ready makes the first meeting productive.

• Copies of every return lodged without your consent and the matching notices of assessment, for each year affected.
• Any prior returns you did approve, so the new agent can see what a genuine year of yours looks like and spot what was added.
• Your real records: income statements, interest and dividend statements, bank and credit card statements, receipts for genuine deductions, rental statements, business income and expense records if you trade.
• Everything from the old agent: engagement letters, invoices, fee from refund arrangements, portal messages, emails and your single written request for an explanation.
• Your timeline: when you last engaged them, when you left, when you noticed the lodgements, when you called the ATO and the reference numbers.
• Any complaint already lodged with the TPB or the ATO, including acknowledgement emails.
• If fraud is suspected: the police report number, the ATO identity support reference and what you have already changed on myGov.

The new agent will typically link to your ATO account, confirm the old authority is gone, reconcile each year to your records, prepare amendments with a covering explanation, lodge the voluntary disclosure, put the safe harbour and remission case, and deal with the ATO so you do not have to. Expect them to quote by scope: a single wrong year with good records is a very different job from four years with no records and a refund paid to someone else.

Mistakes that make it worse

• Signing the declaration after the fact. Agents sometimes send a backdated or post lodgement declaration to "tidy things up". Signing it converts an unauthorised lodgement into one you approved, and attaches the claims in it to you.
• Going to the TPB but not the ATO. The TPB complaint deals with the agent. Only the ATO can fix the assessment and only the ATO can note your account so it does not happen again.
• Leaving the agent linked while you "sort it out". An agent who is still linked can lodge again, see your income data, and update your details. Remove the authority first.
• Spending a refund you suspect is wrong. If the return is amended, that money has to go back, with interest running in the meantime.
• Waiting for the ATO to find it. The penalty position for a voluntary disclosure is far better than for a shortfall the ATO identifies in a review.
• Deleting or ignoring the old agent's messages. Angry as you may be, their correspondence is your evidence.
• Lodging your own amendment before reviewing every year. Partial fixes create inconsistent returns and a harder story to tell later.

What affects how this plays out