The taxation office issued a notice yesterday that will affect on-line sellers using the services of eBay. ATO data matching is progressing all the time. By targeting companies like eBay they don't need to put many boots on the ground, so the cost benefit analysis is favourable, unlike if they targeted markets and so on, where the cost of sending out teams probably makes it less favourable.
Commissioner of Taxation
NOTICE OF A DATA MATCHING PROGRAM
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire online selling data relating to registrants who sold goods and services to a value of $10,000 or more during the period 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015.
Data providers are included in/excluded from the program based on the following principles:
* The data owner or its subsidiary operates a business in Australia that is governed by Australian law
* The data owner provides an online market place for businesses and individuals to buy and sell goods and services
* The data owner tracks the activity of registered sellers
* The data owner has clients whose annual trading activity amounts to $10,000 or more
* The data owner has trading activity for the year in focus
* Where the client base of a data owner does not present an omitted or unreported income risk, or the administrative or financial cost of collecting the data exceeds the benefit the data may provide, the data owner may be excluded from the program.
In accordance with the principles listed above data will be sought from eBay Australia and New Zealand Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of eBay International AG which owns and operates
www.ebay.com.au
The data requested will include information that enables the ATO match online selling accounts to a taxpayer, including name, address and contact information as well as information on the number and value of transactions processed for each online selling account. This acquired data will be electronically matched with certain sections of ATO data holdings to identify possible non-compliance with taxation law.
It is estimated that records relating to between 15,000 and 25,000 individuals will be matched.
These records will be electronically matched with certain sections of ATO data holdings to identify non-compliance with registration, lodgment, reporting and payment obligations under taxation laws.
The purpose of this data matching program is to ensure that taxpayers are correctly meeting their taxation obligations in relation to business sales through online selling sites. These obligations include registration, lodgment, reporting and payment responsibilities. Its objectives are to:
* Promote voluntary compliance and increase community confidence in the integrity of the tax system
* Identify those apparently operating a business but failing to meet their registration and/or lodgment obligations
* Gain insights from the data that may help to develop and implement treatment strategies to improve voluntary compliance; which may include educational or compliance activities as appropriate
* Obtain intelligence to increase the ATO’s understanding of the behaviours and compliance profiles of individuals and businesses that sell goods or services via online selling sites.
* Ensure compliance with registration, lodgment, correct reporting and payment of taxation obligations.
