Over the past few years, the ATO has been expanding it's data matching program to ensure compliance for taxpayers lodgments.
Currently the ATO is obtaining information from:
- Banking Institutions (obtaining interest earned amounts)
- Private Health Insurance Providers (obtaining annual statements)
- Employers (Matching Taxable Payments Annual Reports to ABN Holders declared Income)
- Share Trading Sources (Dividend Information)
Other key areas the ATO is targeting are:
Share Transactions
- purchase / sale dates and prices
- quantities of shares acquired or disposed
- corporate actions affecting shareholders (eg. reconstructions)
The key area here is the ATO is ensuring all capital gains and losses are being disclosed in a taxpayers tax return.
Online Selling
The ATO will acquire online selling data to registrants who sold goods and services to an annual value of $12,000 or more from EBay.
They're looking to detect unreported income & identify those registrants operating a business but failing to meet their registration obligations.
Renting Out a Room
The ATO will acquire information from online platforms such as Air BNB.
Money earned from renting out a room in your main residence is rental income either through a lease or a sharing economy platform & must be included in your tax return.
While income must be declared, a portion of expenses can also be claimed.
CGT may also apply if a property was sold that was used to generate rental income.
Credit Card / Debit Cards
The ATO will continue to acquire data relating to credit and debit card payments to merchants such as:
- AMEX
- ANZ
- Bank of Queensland
- Bendigo & Adelaide Bank
- CBA
- Diners Club
- First Data Merchant Solutions
- NAB
- St George Bank
- Suncorp-Metway
- Tyco
- Westpac