The complainant was under a temporary guardianship arrangement whereby their financial affairs were managed by a trustee appointed to be their guardian. The trustee lodged several income tax returns for the complainant and nominated for any refunds to be deposited into the trustee’s bank account. After the ATO processed the tax returns, it refunded approximately $15,000 to the nominated account. Following the expiry of the guardianship arrangement, the trustee ceased to act as the complainant’s guardian and returned the monies to the ATO via electronic funds transfer (EFT). Unfortunately, the ATO was unable to locate the returned monies because the ATO’s system never identified it as belonging to the complainant’s account. This was due to an unfortunate coincidence whereby the 15-digit reference number in the trustee’s bank transfer matched details relating to a third party taxpayer (unrelated to either the complainant or the trustee) on the ATO’s system. 

The complainant approached the ATO to request their refund and lodged a complaint in May 2022. The ATO’s complaints area advised the complainant it had correctly issued the refund to the bank account nominated on the tax return, that it could not assist further and that this was now a matter between the complainant and their former guardian. The ATO did not request the complainant to provide any additional information to assist it with locating the refund, including records of the trustee’s EFT payment which evidenced that the monies had been returned to the ATO.  

The IGTO commenced a dispute investigation with the ATO and supplied the trustee’s EFT records to the ATO which proved to be instrumental in enabling the ATO to locate the missing monies. Within three weeks of the IGTO commencing an investigation, the ATO located and refunded the monies directly to the complainant’s bank account and the matter was resolved.