Compliance program 2011-12

Income tax

We reviewed over 28,000 tax returns in relation to high-risk refunds, resulting in revenue adjustments of approximately $44 million.
We reviewed over 29,000 income tax refunds identified as potentially over-claimed refunds or fraudulent claims, resulting in revenue adjustments of approximately $105 million.
We raised approximately $103 million in revenue adjustments from over 500 reviews and audits of high-income executives and directors.
We expanded the comparison of third-party data against information provided in tax returns, resulting in over 398,000 income and benefits discrepancies requiring revenue adjustments of approximately $347 million. These results included

$56 million in foreign source income using data from the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and information supplied by our overseas treaty partners
$15 million in incorrect Medicare levy exemption claims where no exemption certificate existed
$12 million from non lodgers where we raised default assessments based on the information reported by third parties.

We processed information about an additional 37 million share transactions in 2010-11, bringing the total share transactions we use in information matching to approximately 237 million.
We received an additional 1 million property records, bringing the total number of processed real property transactions used in our matching activities to approximately 25 million.
The offshore voluntary disclosure initiative resulted in over 7,600 disclosures by taxpayers since commencing in July 2007. Now finalised, this initiative resulted in over $155 million in tax and penalties across four years.

Lodgment

We wrote to 1.9 million individuals following up their lodgment and phoned 122,100 individuals to further ensure they met their obligations. These activities resulted in us refunding net liabilities of approximately $100 million.

Debt

We supported many individuals in meeting their payment obligations by granting payment arrangements, with over 80,000 in place at any point in time.
We suspended debt collection action and automatically deferred due dates for tax payments for individuals affected by natural disasters.
We took over 1,600 firmer and legal recovery actions against individuals who chose not to work with us or continually defaulted on agreed arrangements.
We received over 5,000 applications for release from payment of tax debt and granted full or partial release in around 75% of release decisions made.
The number of tax debtors in the individuals market is around 444,000.

Superannuation

In 2010-11, we actioned over 16,300 complaints from employees relating to unpaid superannuation. Over the last five years, our superannuation guarantee compliance activities have resulted in around $1.3 billion of additional super being transferred to member accounts.
We issued assessments to around 41,000 individuals who exceeded the contribution caps, raising approximately $285 million in liabilities. We also provided additional communications on various aspects of the excess contributions tax system to assist individuals in understanding how we apply the law. We undertook the majority of this activity in time for taxpayers to vary their contribution behaviour to avoid exceeding the caps in the 2010/11 year.
As part of our commitment to addressing lost superannuation, we have contacted members regarding almost 266,000 lost superannuation accounts. These reviews have resulted in a number of accounts being removed from the lost member register.

Last Modified: Friday, 1 July 2011