Tax office works with Plutus clients

The tax office has given workers and employers caught up in the Plutus Payroll scandal some leeway in lodging their returns.

Plutus is the company at the centre of one of Australia's biggest suspected white-collar crimes.

Ten people have so far been charged in relation to the alleged fraud, including Adam and Laura Cranston, the children of Australian Taxation Office deputy commissioner Michael Cranston.

The ATO said in a statement on Monday it wanted to give workers and employers some certainty by providing detailed advice on its website ato.gov.au/support or through a hotline 1800 060 062.

"Workers will not be penalised when the amount reported as being withheld is not actually paid to the ATO," the office said.

"At tax time, the amounts withheld from their pay will be applied when their income tax liability is assessed.

The ATO said it was putting in place a range of support measures for employers.

Meanwhile, Independent Contractors Australia said the alleged fraud - which involved Plutus Payroll not paying PAYG withholding tax to the tax office - had been publicly discussed for some time.

It was the focus of debate in the Whirlpool online forum three years ago.

"They sound a bit too good to be true," wrote one person.

Another Whirlpool user questioned an event by Plutus involving Miss World Australia Erin Holland.

"They have a free meet and greet event on in a couple of weeks in Canberra at the Hyatt - presentation and meet Miss World. Personally, I like my accountant/payroll people to be boring, and this is looking a bit too flashy. Oh well! We shall see."

ICA's Ken Phillips said Plutus appeared to be providing no-cost services to contractors.

"Plutus looked too good to be true and it proved to be too good to be true," he said.

"It's unknown at this stage if the ATO will try to recover unpaid tax from the 2,000-or-so IT contractors ... but it does offer a reminder to us all, nothing is for nothing."