The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has revealed billions of dollars in revenue is being lost every year due to dodgy tax returns.

The ATO estimates the country has a tax gap of $8.7 billion, based on hundreds of random audits carried out last year.

About 200,000 people are believed to be deliberately over-claiming on expenses, and not properly declaring their incomes.

That’s on top of minor mistakes from many others.

The Tax Institute’s Senior Tax Counsel Bob Deutsch tells Chris Kenny work deductions are the main issue.

“The bigger problems seems to be on the deduction side, and in particular, work-related deductions.

“There will be a stronger focus because I think the tax office is now well and truly onto this and want to make sure people are doing the right thing.”

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