Processes involving \(\tau\)-leptons play a very important role in the physics program of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, being fundamental both for Standard Model precision measurements and for new physics searches. The estimation of the background from jets misidentified as \(\tau\)-leptons is a tough challenge for physics analyses due to the poor reliability of Monte Carlo simulations in modeling this background. This contribution describes an innovative technique to predict this background, the Universal Fake Factor method, which refines and generalizes the commonly used data-driven fake factors method. With this new method, fake factors are computed as a linear combination of fake factors measured in samples enriched in different sources of jets misidentified as \(\tau\)-leptons. The Universal Fake Factor method presents several advantages: it does not require dedicated analysis control regions, provides a robust way to evaluate systematic uncertainties and can be easily used by a wide range of analyses.