Gazette notice: Commissioner of Taxation – Notice of a data-matching program

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire novated lease data from McMillan Shakespeare Group, Smartgroup Corporation, SG Fleet Group, Eclipx Group, LeasePlan, Toyota Fleet Management, LeasePLUS and Orix Australia for 2018–19 through to 2022–23. The data items include:

■          Lessee/employee identification details (unique identifier of the lessee, name of the lessee, addresses of the lessee (residential and postal), date of birth of the lessee, all contact telephone numbers (for example: fixed line, mobile) for the lessee, email address(es) of the lessee

■          Employer identification details (unique identifier of the employer, name (trading name and legal name) of the employer, ABN of the employer, addresses (business and postal) of the employer, contact name for the employer, contact telephone numbers (for example: fixed line, mobile) for the employer, email address(es) of the employer

■          Lease transaction details (unique identifier for the lease transaction, lease start date, lease end date, lease expected end date, lease termination date, number plate of the vehicle, type of vehicle (new or used), category of vehicle (sedan, wagon, utility etc), lease price per month including GST, items packaged with the vehicle lease, expenses packaged with the vehicle lease (for example: fuel, servicing), bank account name for the lessee, bank account number for the lessee, bank account BSB for the lessee

We estimate that records relating to approximately 260,000 individuals will be obtained each financial year.

The data will be acquired and matched against ATO records to:

■          inform individuals with novated lease arrangements of their taxation obligations as part of an information and education campaign

■          identify relevant cases for administrative action including compliance activities and educational strategies

■          allow us to provide tailored messages in our online services, prompting taxpayers to check they are correctly meeting their reporting obligations when completing their tax returns

■          use insights from the data to design ways to make it easier for our clients to interact with the system and get their affairs right.

The objectives of this program are to:

■          help ensure that individuals and businesses are fulfilling their tax and superannuation obligations

■          identify and educate those individuals and businesses who may be failing to meet their lodgement obligations and assist them to comply

■          gain insights to help develop and implement strategies to improve voluntary compliance; which may include educational or compliance activities for individuals and businesses with novated lease arrangements

■          promote voluntary compliance and increase community confidence in the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems.

A document describing this program is available at ato.gov.au/dmprotocols.

This program follows the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s Guidelines on data matching in Australian Government administration (2014) (the guidelines). The guidelines include standards for the of use data matching as an administrative tool in a way that:

■          complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act)

■          is consistent with good privacy practice.

A full copy of the ATO’s privacy policy can be accessed at ato.gov.au/privacy