The Tax Office has confirmed Australians will be required to sign up for online myGov accounts when lodging their tax returns electronically this year.

The news follows comments from the outgoing Information Commissioner suggesting the myGov portal could reignite the controversial ''Australia Card'' debate.

Some of the information accessible via my.gov.au when linking it to Medicare.

The myGov portal allows Australians to link all information stored on them by multiple government agencies to one account that has a single username and password.

The requirement to sign up for myGov accounts for electronic tax returns comes after security experts recently blasted the government for its ''appalling response'' to an independent report that found security holes in the site that allowed any account to be hijacked.