An economy in ruins. Expensive beer. Unattractive women. Ireland is the last place you would want to spend your youth. Australia meanwhile, with its booming economy, cheap grog and attractive women is for many the ideal location for a stint abroad.
Another big strike in favour of the famed year in Oz is the fact that the Australian Tax Office (ATO) refunds money deducted from your sheep-shearing pay packet once you head home.
Sadly, laziness means many never get around to claiming and funds are left with the Australians to spend on boomerangs and Marmite sandwiches. Some of us, wooed by the promise of a quick turnaround and a rebate cheque with no effort, choose to use a company such as taxback.com to claim. But is this a clever method of getting your hands on those hard-won Aussie dollars?
Well, on the surface it can certainly seem to be. They say they can do the donkey work and the fees don’t seem all that bad. According to taxback.com, they charge 9% + levy of the refund received for ‘standard tax returns’ which is ‘subject to a minimum processing fee of $99 + levy’.
So what do they actually do for the money? Well, as it turns out, you have to round up final pay slips from your Australian employers yourself if you want to keep yourself in the ‘standard tax return’ pricing bracket. Taxback can do this for you, but they charge you a ‘document recovery fee’ and you will have to forward them the contact details of the employer. Which sort of takes the work out of it.
Next, you will need to fill out a battery of forms from taxback.com which will include a Power of Attorney, an application form, a residency questionnaire and a customer agreement form.
Exhaustive
JOE.ie recently went  the taxback.com route. After the exhaustive list of forms were completed, signed and scanned or posted away, it was time to see if the ‘Fast refunds – tax refunds in just 10 days’ claim on the company’s website was genuine. Happily, a few short months and dozens of what’s-the-story-with-my-tax-type queries later, an email arrived:
“Great news – taxback.com has just received your tax refund!â€
Unfortunately, the email also revealed that AU$519 (€370) in various charges would be cleaved off and never seen again. It was time to make a fuss in the most public manner possible. It was decided that taxback.com’s Facebook account, with over 2,000 followers, would suffice.
‘Just told my tax claim has been transferred into my bank. You took $519 dollars from a payment of $1690. For submitting a few forms? $519 dollars? Rip off mate.’
Taxback proved quick to respond when confronted in front of its fans:
‘We always pride ourselves on being 100% transparent with our fees and offer the best possible value for money service. The fees you outlined seem unusual for an Australian income tax refund application.’
So it might be just an oversight? I might have extra money to put towards my granny’s hip replacement op? Great!
Taxback requested further information and once it was sent, another message appeared on Facebook. It stated that a ‘Senior Sales & Operations Manager’ would be in touch to give a breakdown of the various charges. A breakdown. That’s not as good as money. Another message was in order.
‘I don’t really want a breakdown of charges… I want to know if you think a charge of $519 for a tax refund sounds reasonable to you – your earlier message certainly suggested that this was the case (sic). If you do consider this unreasonable then I would like your company to give some of it back.’
Taxback responded with a breakdown. I had thought working just under a year in Oz and claiming when you came home was standard stuff, but apparently not.
‘The fee of $519 for you covers two separate tax refund applications that we filed for you.’ So separate charges were applied for 2009 and 2010. Then there were processing fees. Levies. Transfer fees. I didn’t care how they chopped up the cash, just about how much they took:
‘I said I wasn’t interested in a breakdown of the charges, and you give me a breakdown of the charges.’
Again, the response was lightening fast:
‘Our fees are really competitive with what other tax preparers in Australia provide and we offer one of the fastest and most professional services.’
It was getting annoying. The company had initially stated that $99 would be taken for the 2009 claim and ‘AU$225.44 and VAT AU$45’ deducted for 2010. That was less than $519. So what was the story?
‘I asked how much I would be charged before I told you to go ahead with my tax claim. The 2009 claim was 99 dollars. I asked how much would be deducted from my money due to fees for 2010 and was told it would be “AU$225.44 and VAT AU$45.” I gave my consent for you to look after my tax claim on the basis that this is what would be deducted.’
Taxback reckoned there was a simple explanation:
“The difference in your original estimated fee and the actual fee comes from the difference in the amount of money we got back for you. We actually secured an additional $500 from the ATO for you.’
They were taking the piss.
‘What do you mean the money you ‘got back’ for me? The tax brackets and related refunds are decided by the ATO. You seem to be putting the difference between the original quote and the gross I received down to your company doing an extra special job on my behalf. The reality is that you simply made a mistake in your original estimate and understated the amount of money I was due under existing ATO regulations. It’s actually comical – you’re patting yourself on the back over the fact that you made a mistake in my estimate.
‘Break down the charges whatever way you like – you made a mistake in your estimate because you’re obviously not as familiar with the regulations of the ATO as you like to make out you are and then passed on the charge to me. The more I think about it the more of a rip off this seems to be.’
Underestimations
I was starting to wonder if these underestimations, with the low charge estimates they came with, were really accidental. Taxback, unfortunately, had taken as much public ridicule as they could swallow:
‘We believe it would be much quicker and more appropriate to further discuss your concerns over the phone in order to resolve this as quickly as possible.’
The company then emailed with another breakdown of the charges. It made for fascinating reading, but wasn’t as good as money.
So is there an alternative to a good financial fisting from the likes of taxback.com? Well, while some would suggest filing your own return is complex, once you have gathered the information taxback.com requests you will in most cases have everything you need to submit the application. It can even be done online.
The ATO’s e-tax system is surprisingly user-friendly and comes with various tutorials and guidelines on how to submit your claim. It can be completed in a matter of minutes and most will be processed within 14 days.
So what of our claim? Well, taxback.com held its nerve and refused to budge. We, meanwhile, were reduced to encouraging others to laugh at some suspicious messages left on the company’s Facebook page:
‘Anyone think that the positive feedback comments on this page look really, really fake? “Thanks taxback for your fast efficient and affordable services, and oh your very helpful customer service!!!!” Come on, who talks like that.’
Taxback wasn’t having it however:
‘You can see from our wall that we keep all kinds of feedback – both positive and negative – on our wall so it’s clear that all our posts are 100% real from our genuine customers!!’
Comments
That was true. Strange they would draw attention to it, but there were a stunning number of negative comments from their customers posted on the company’s Facebook page:
‘My applications were sent in tax office 12 weeks ago, but I’ve not received the answer yet. Can you explain what’s going on and why are they late?’
‘I have been waiting for my tax return for over a year now, when i call them, they say they will call back but they NEVER do. just like they say someone will email me with a update on my return. i have given up on ever getting this return.’
‘I’m still waiting on my FICA tax back from 2006.’
And so on and so forth.
The path of least resistance is often the one we choose to trudge but in this case, getting the finger out and doing your own tax return will probably save you money, hassle and time.
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