Despite the tax authorities' high-profile campaign against tax evasion, the country has recorded a 20 percent spike on tax offenses, according to the latest report issued by the Australian Taxation office (ATO).

Yet many of these 'mistakes', tax experts said, where wholly preventable under the generally lenient tax provisions being enforced by the taxman.

With a host of available ways to prevent legal troubles, incidence of tax cheats, according to ATO officials, still jumped to 478 cases as of the September quarter, coming from the 389 prosecutions that the tax office has posted in 2010.

In the third quarter alone this year, the ATO has successfully sue for the conviction of 356 individuals who were liable for tax offenses as compared to the 333 completed cases in the previous period.

Tax cheats haled to court by the ATO face up to five years of jail term, according to ATO acting commissioner Jeanie Granger, but she added that the lasting effects are what hurt most.

Apart from the likelihood of serving time, Granger added that persons convicted of tax crimes will eternally carry the record on their files as she stressed that "even if penalties do not include jail time, a criminal conviction will mean a permanent criminal record."

"As well as disqualifying you from many kinds of employment, this can impact on other areas, including restricting travel to some countries," the tax official was quoted by News.com.au as saying on Monday.

Such dire consequences could have been prevented to begin with, according to Mrtaxman.com founder Adrian Raftery, had the tax offenders assumed considerable amounts of income honesty and initiatives.

"The tax laws are pretty kind to taxpayers. There are ways that you can reduce your tax bill legally without having to resort to illegal tactics," Raftery said.

He added that avoiding payment of a few thousand dollars is not worth in lieu of being imprisoned or forever carry the blot of criminal record as "the taxman is well-equipped to catch you out eventually."

Also, in the event of inaccurate tax filings, it pays, according to H&R Block director Frank Brass, to correct such mistakes voluntarily as "the tax office takes a much more lenient view and this is reflected in the penalties."

"You should request an amendment to correct the error, rather than wait for the tax office to discover it ... and you may have to pay some interest on the amount of money you had in error but, generally, penalties will not apply if you voluntarily disclose the error," Brass suggested.