Payroll Master File with Tax File Numbers

Detects bulk payroll data files containing employee names, Tax File Numbers (TFNs), bank account details, and salary information. Disclosure enables mass identity theft, fraudulent tax returns, and targeted social engineering.

Type

regex

Engine

universal

Confidence

high

Confidence justification

High confidence: checksum-valid TFN-format numbers co-occurring with payroll context keywords and BSB patterns in a document strongly indicates a payroll master file. The TFN validator plus sentinel/test filters reduce generic digit-run, phone-number, and placeholder false positives.

Detection quality

Error

Jurisdictions

au

Regulations

Criminal Code 1899 (Qld), Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), Tax Admin Act 1953 (Cth)

Frameworks

QGISCF

Data categories

financial, government

Scope

wide

Risk rating

10

Platform compatibility

Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible

Pattern

\b\d{3}[\s\-]?\d{3}[\s\-]?\d{3}\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

payroll, TFN, tax file number, salary, remuneration, bank account, direct deposit, master file, payroll extract, STP, Single Touch Payroll, BSB, gross pay, net pay, PAYG, financial, fiscal, monetary, accounting, treasury (+25 more)

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

• Payroll Master File Extract - Department of Health. Employee: Smith, John. TFN: 485 564 502. BSB: 064-000. Account: 12345678. Gross Salary: $95,420. PAYG: $24,108. Employee: Jones, Mary. TFN: 590 821 738. BSB: 084-004. Account: 87654321. Gross Salary: $102,350. — Bulk payroll file with multiple TFNs, BSBs, and salary data
• PROTECTED — STP Payroll Data Export. Single Touch Payroll extract for pay period ending 15 Feb 2026. Contains 2,847 employee records with tax file numbers and bank account details for direct deposit processing. Example record TFN: 123 456 782. — STP bulk payroll export file description
• Payroll master file export — Department of Education. Employee records: Lee, Anna. TFN: 459 599 230. BSB: 034-002. Account: 55667788. Gross pay: $88,640. PAYG: $21,300. Employee: Tran, Minh. TFN: 876 543 210. BSB: 062-001. Account: 33445566. Gross pay: $97,210. — Bulk payroll master file with multiple checksum-valid TFNs, BSBs and salaries

Should not match

• Please provide your Tax File Number on the employment form. Your TFN is used for PAYG tax withholding purposes. Contact HR for assistance. — General HR form requesting a single TFN — not bulk data
• The payroll department processes many thousands of payments each fortnight. Total annual salary expenditure is reported in aggregate only, with no individual employee records. — Aggregate payroll statistics without individual records
• Payroll contact list. Mobile: 0412 345 678. Salary query contact only. — Australian mobile phone number in payroll context must not satisfy the TFN anchor
• Payroll template. TFN: 00 000 000. BSB: 00-000. Account placeholder only. — Mis-formatted placeholder identifiers (short groups) are structurally rejected; full all-zero sentinels like 000 000 000 are additionally dropped by AllDigitsSameFilter/TextMatchFilter in the SIT

Known false positives

• HR onboarding forms requesting a single employee's TFN Mitigation: Require multiple TFN-pattern matches (3+) in the same document to indicate bulk data rather than a single record
• Aggregate payroll reports with summary statistics but no individual records Mitigation: Require co-occurrence of TFN-format numbers with payroll context rather than summary dollar amounts alone

Collections

• Australian Public Sector Tuned Identifiers