Did you know the ATO collects information for the purpose of ‘Data Matching’ from a wide range of third party sources, public and private, with over 600 million transaction reported annually.
- Banks, financial institutions and investment bodies: investment income
- Employers: payments to employees and contractors
- State and territory motor vehicle registering bodies: motor vehicles sold, transferred or newly registered
- State and territory title offices and revenue agencies: sales and other transfers of real property
- Government bodies: pensions, benefits, rebates, taxable grants and other payments
- Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and our international treaty partners: foreign source income
- Online selling platforms: quantity and value of online sales
- Sharing economy facilitators: payments to participants
- Financial institutions providing merchant facilities and administrators of specialised payment systems: electronic payments processed for business including total credit and debit card payments received
- Stock exchanges and share registries: share transactions
- Businesses in the building and construction industry: payments made for building and construction services
- Health insurers: confirmation of health insurance cover and premiums paid
- Cryptocurrency designated service providers: purchase and sale information.
In addition to the above, the ATO has ‘Access Powers’ which means that at all reasonable times, they have free and full access to any land, premises, place, documents, goods or other property for the purpose of the Acts they administer. They are allowed to take extracts from or copies of any documents.
The extent of data matching services within the ATO is expanding and now more than ever, it is so important to ensure the information provided to the ATO is accurate.
The positive side is that as tax agents, we have access to this information a lot quicker. Previously, it could take over a month to receive statements from health insurers, interest summaries from banks etc
We are now finding that this information is being reported to the ATO much quicker allowing us to complete your tax work more efficiently.
Author
Kate Lindquist
