Brisbane, QLD, 3rd April 2007 – Taxpayers and tax professionals are increasingly preparing and filing tax returns online, creating a reliance on digital data that, if lost through malfunction or error, could spell disaster. Last year, 90 per cent of Australian taxpayers lodged returns electronically, and the Tax Commissioner is aiming to boost that number to 95 per cent of taxpayers in 2007/8.

As insurance against this risk, CBL Data Recovery Technologies Pty Ltd (CBL) advises tax customers to take five simple steps to safeguard against loss of crucial data and offers a free data recovery evaluation to individuals and tax professionals if they are faced with a data loss crisis.

Vicky Brauner, CBL’s Managing Director comments, “The preparation of tax returns is stressful enough without having to start over because of data loss. Regardless of which software or online method is used, taxpayers must take precautions to safeguard their data.”

Brauner urges taxpayers to be ‘disaster-ready’ throughout the tax return preparation process, including by:

1) Backing up accounting files nightly and saving frequently
2) Finding out if your tax software has a back up feature (and if it does, ensuring you are using it properly and the data can be read, or if it does not, using a compatible third-party backup system)
3) Backing up a second copy of records and sensitive data to external media such as a CD, DVD or USB drive
4) Protecting your system with anti-virus software, firewalls and power surge devices
5) Shutting off the power immediately and advising your IT supplier of any unusual noises on your computer (such as ticking or clicking) as these may indicate imminent malfunction.

“Data recovery becomes an important issue during tax time. Significant resources are invested in the tax process, so having a professional to call on when things go wrong can save a lot of time, money and energy,” adds Brauner.

“Most people panic when faced with a potential data crisis. Their first instinct is to turn the computer off and on again in the hope it’s just a temporary glitch,” adds Brauner. “More often than not, this makes the situation worse.”

In the event of tax data loss, individuals and tax professionals can take advantage of CBL’s free data recovery evaluation and their no data, no charge guarantee.

Details on CBL’s services are available at

About CBL Data Recovery Technologies (Australia) Pty Ltd

Vicky Brauner is the Managing Director

CBL’s expertise is recovering data lost from any medium, due to any cause. A leading international provider of data recovery services, CBL’s specialist expertise is backed by proprietary technologies for retrieving data – lost through hardware failure, natural disaster, software corruption or human error – from magnetic, removable or tape media. In addition to being used by individuals, CBL’s services are called on by companies as needed and are factored in to DRP (disaster recovery planning) processes.

Founded in 1993, CBL’s network of labs, offices and 46 authorised partners are located in ten countries around the world here is Australai we are in Brisbane and Sydney.