Australian Taxation Office Reviews 

ATO are a mob of god damn thieves. Wife had a debt from an old tax return (mind you we have both spent our entire lives working and paying tax in a country that has the highest income tax rates in the world), she was paying it back slowly and missed a few payments due to financial hardship. Today we found out without contact or warning from the ATO they just took the entire nearly 7000 out of our JOINT savings (Thats my money too) IM SICK TO DEATH OF THIS CORRUPT COUNTRY!!

Contacted ATO about adding my middle name so as it would match up with my ABN and all my ID credentials. The woman I spoke to was useless. Asked for numerous ID (understandable) asked for my marriage certificate, not good enough because it didn’t have my married surname, then asked for my birth certificate couldn’t use it because obviously it didn’t have my married name (because I was a baby) grrrrrr . She ended up passing the buck and got me to print a form to fill out and send to ATO, as I started filling it out realised that the form asked for the same ID that she said was no good. So frustrating. Ended up working it out myself and going into myGov and thank god I could fix it through that way. That took me like 2 minutes and I can’t believe she wasn’t aware of that fix. Useless, absolutely useless.

Wanted to know when my tax bill was due to be paid. A simple question. Four attempts to ring and finally after a ten minute process of identifying myself got the answer.

I had a very positive experience with Jayanthi from ATO Support Services. I was extremely frustrated because I was having difficulty linking my myGov account to the ATO and could not work out how to complete the process.
Jayanthi was incredibly patient, kind and respectful throughout the whole call. She took the time to guide me through each step clearly and stayed with me until everything was successfully completed. She made the whole process much easier and helped me when I was feeling very stressed and frustrated.
I really appreciate her patience, professionalism and kindness. She did an excellent job and provided outstanding support. Thank you so much, Jayanthi, for your help!

It is rare I can be bothered to leave website reviews - but I have created a Trustpilot account specifically so I can comment on the ATO's MyGov website. Since moving to Australia, every single interaction I have had with this system is painful to the point of embarrassment. This is supposedly where I need to manage my mandatory tax return, yet it is physically impossible to log into my account, because the 'forgotten password' resets simply do not arrive.

As with many countries' tax websites, they are superbly effective when it comes to taking money from you. But the second it could go the other way, you can look forward to months of frustration, long waits on the phone, confusing messaging and errors.

One very small positive of leaving an otherwise beautiful country is I won't have to deal with this car crash of a website anymore.

The ATO is quick to jump down people's throats or just take money directly from their bank accounts if they're late with their tax returns but ironically when it comes to services they offer such as updating their website they can take as long as they need. As an example information I need for work on one of their pages is meant to be effective from 1/07/2026 it is now 24/09/2026 and it is still showing data that was updated on 5 September 2025 which was relevant from 01/07/2025 - 30/06/2026.

When you try and call them to find out when they will actually do their job, no one can tell you who even manages the website or when it will be updated. Disgusting, not accountable at all and they hold citizens accountable for every cent.

I tried 9 times over 4 hours to call the business support number regarding an error in the return form, and every time I received an automated messages saying that they were experiencing peak demand and could not answer. I tried the live chat through my tax and that was unavailable. The largest agency in the Public Service and they provide no actual customer service at all!

I've had a few calls with them, no issues and everyone was quite helpful.
This one call today, a lady couldn't hear me (i suspect it was her line as no one had any issues with me) she instantly was irate and ended the call. Is such a person with no control over her emotions suitable for a ATO job?
After making sure she could hear me, she asked for some information where I said give me a sec just grabbing it (documents) she hung up
Absolutely wonderful

I work work work and you take all my money and waste it on imports. Malakas

I would give them no stars. Been on the phone to ATO for a week now. Waiting period 30 min customer rep answers then reconnect me to another department another 45 min wait then the line drops. Call back and it’s ground hog day. One customer rep gave me another number if the line drops, contacted that number to be given two other numbers by automatic voice followed by the line dropping again. Calculating 5 hrs on the phone in 5 days and my issue is still not resolved . At present waiting for a call back. Which is one positive , they do call back to redirect my call and I’m hoping it’s resolved this time.

This is funny as put on priority processing for me. I submitted my tax return application on the 10 of July 2026. As I'm having problems with my ex employer. Also have tip off my ex employer for not paying my tax and superannuation also, asic, FWO, as his only full time employee. I guess criminalized businesses are always backed up by the government even they evade taxes and superannuation for their employees. But they charge the public community GST!!!! 🤣🤣🤣 What a GREAT PRIORITY PROCESSING FOR ATO TEAM!!! THANKS GUYS. ALL MY MEDICAL BILLS, ISSUES AND LEGAL SERVICES ARE ALL IN HOLD STILL. IT'S PRIORITY BUT IT'S TAKING ALMOST 1 MONTH OR SO.......... JULY 10 2026, TODAY IS AUGUST 17, 2026. I'LL JUST SAY THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HELPING CRIMINALIZED BUSINESSES. ✌️😁 I'm Very very happy about this experience, like so happy I'm going crazy. 😂🤣😂😂🤣

They have been holding a miniscule amount of my super hostage for 5 years because I don't meet certain archaic criteria to withdraw it directly, as in I don't have a terminal illness or leaving Australia which imo is utter BS. I've complained and got a boiler plate BS reply. I was unable to work for a significant amount of time and was notified only once they took my super away from me, not a single damn word before. There is no recourse, I can move it to another superfund which won't let me withdraw it without proper reasons, none the of which I meet. It's my damn money and should be able to do whatever I want with it. To be told by an overbearing bureaucracy is horseS.

I had an extremely frustrating experience with the ATO app support team today.

Yesterday, I called this same support number but couldn’t complete the process because I didn’t have my identification with me. The agent I spoke with yesterday understood my issue immediately and advised me to call back once I had my ID.

Today, I called back with my ID ready, but the male agent I spoke to seemed to have no understanding of my enquiry. I clearly explained multiple times that I no longer have access to my old registered device, as the verification code was being sent to that device. Instead of addressing that issue, he repeatedly insisted that the phone number on file matched my records, despite me explaining that my problem wasn’t my phone number—it was the registered device.

After spending over 30 minutes on the phone going in circles, I was then told to call the ATO Tax Office. That made no sense, considering I was already calling the number provided by the ATO app, and the agent from this same department yesterday understood exactly what I needed assistance with.

It was incredibly disappointing to spend so much time explaining the same issue over and over, only to feel like I wasn’t being listened to. Customer service representatives should understand the services they support and, at the very least, listen carefully to what the customer is actually asking before providing advice. This experience was frustrating, time-consuming, and left my issue unresolved.

So much better now with more features and functionality. Faster, better UI and more information available on related to the ATO. A lot easier to find the information now.

But same as many Aus Govt websites, it takes too long to speak to a human or not available and need to waste an hour on hold on a phone call just to speak to someone. Needs better functionality built into website to allow more direct access to human staff. And cover all use cases.

If in Australia calling for an hour on hold is ok because charge is low. But many times when outside Australia and you need to call or contact the ATO and call and wait for an hour on hold is a massive waste and cost in roaming charges. So they need to make functionality that allows them to verify a person and chat to a live person via APP or this website.

We are Australia citizens, we should have this stuff built into here instead of being lazy and legacy and not thinking outside the box to implement ways to handle this for Australians not in Australia but needing to speak to ATO staff without the roaming charges.