Gazette notice: Commissioner of Taxation – Notice of a government payments program data-matching program 6 October 2021

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire government payments data from government entities who administer government programs for 2017–18 to 2022–23 financial years.

The data items include:

■          service provider identification details (names, addresses, phone numbers, email, dates of birth, service type, ABN, ACN)

■          payment details (service provider ID, name of service, type of service linked to program, value of payments received for the financial year, count and type of claim, withholding and re-credit amount).

We estimate that records relating to approximately 36,000 service providers will be obtained each financial year.

It is expected, within the 36,000 service providers approximately 11,000 individuals each financial year will be included. The remainder will consist of companies, partnerships, trusts and government entities.

The data will be acquired and matched to identify and address non-compliance with tax and super obligations including registration, lodgment, reporting and payment responsibilities.

This will allow us to:

■          identify and address non-compliance with tax and super obligations by service providers receiving government payments for delivering services

■          support agencies in their understanding of any identified tax or super risks associated with the specific programs being examined.

The objectives of this program are to:

■          obtain reliable data about the service providers receiving government payments, which can then be analysed to identify and assess risks and trends of non-compliance within the service provider population

■          enable the ATO to work with service providers and government entities to obtain a better understanding of the environment and the risks

■          identify service providers that may be operating outside of the tax system

■          identify and educate service providers who may be failing to meet their registration, lodgment, reporting and/or payment obligations and assist them to comply

■          identify service providers not complying with their tax and super obligations and develop a range of engagement activities appropriate to address risks

■          promote voluntary compliance and strengthen community confidence in the integrity of the tax and super systems

■          gain insights to shape future treatment strategies, which may include educational or compliance activities as appropriate

■          identify opportunities to improve system integrity and as a result mitigate tax revenue risk and government entity expenditure risk.

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 use of 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.