ATO Data Matching Programs

Published February 6, 2017 | By Balanix Solutions

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has announced that it is embarking on three major program:

Share transactions data matching program;
Credit and debit card data matching program; and
Online selling data matching program.

All of these programs are about the ATO collecting data that the ATO will be able to use to cross check with other data to ensure that taxpayers are complying with their obligations under the various tax legislation.

In relation to the share transaction, the ATO will be collecting data as far back as 20 September1985 which will assist the ATO in determining the cost base of shares and the capital proceeds from sales of shares. It is Balanix Solutions’ experience that people often do not keep such information as to when they purchased shares which means that significant time is spent piecing together this information in many instances at a not insignificant cost to the client.

This gets even more complicated where companies are either taken over or merged with other companies and shares in the old company are paid for by shares in the new company.

The second program will provide data relating to the credit and debit card payments to merchants and cover off on the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 financial years. This program will include all the major banks, as well as, the likes of American Express and Dinners Club.

The last of the three programs will be collecting data relating to online selling where registrants have sold goods and services to an annual value of $12,000 or more. This program will be targeting those individuals not declaring some or all of their income from online selling and those individuals who are in fact running a business from online selling but not complying with the various pieces of legislation relating to registering a business and the carrying on of a business e.g GST.

If you have any concerns in relation to whether these programs may impact upon you personally or your business, call Balanix Solutions on 07 3264-4783 to discuss your individual circumstances.