An IT error has reportedly led the ATO to issue false, years-old tax debts worth thousands of dollars.

Reports say taxpayers have received erroneous debt letters claiming; “You have an overdue tax debt”, detailing unpaid general interest charges.

In some cases, the debts dated back five years, but the letters asked Australians to the alleged debts within two weeks.

The ATO has told the Guardian that the debts were issued due to a problem with a new IT system for processing activity statements.

The problem has caused general interest charges to be incorrectly applied to the accounts of taxpayers, and has been occurring since January.

“We are resolving this as a priority and are in the process of remediating the affected clients’ accounts,” a spokesperson said.

“The ATO will work with affected clients as appropriate and will ensure that no collection action will be taken on these accounts.”