Credit and debit card data matching

How we collect the data

We obtain data from banks that identifies credit and debit card sales made by Australian businesses. This data is matched against taxpayer records to identify those people deliberately under-reporting or omitting income. The credit and debit card data-matching program identifies merchant transactions conducted in the 2011-2012 financial year.

We have obtained data from the following banks:

• Commonwealth Bank of Australia
• St George Bank
• American Express Australia Limited
• Diners Club Australia
• Westpac Banking Corporation
• Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited
• National Australia Bank Limited
• Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited
• Bank of Queensland Limited
• BWA Merchant Services Pty Ltd.

How we use the data

By using bank data to promote a level playing field for businesses and improve overall compliance with tax obligations, we can:

• check that businesses are declaring all of their income
• obtain intelligence to increase our understanding of the behaviours and compliance profile of businesses in receipt of credit and debit card income
• improve fraud detection models.

Those identified as being at risk of potentially skimming some or all of their cash takings, running part of their business 'off-the-books', or in other ways not reporting all their income, should contact us to make a voluntary disclosure or self-amendment of any under-reported amounts.

In cases where businesses fail to comply with their obligations, even after being reminded of them, other compliance activities may be appropriate, including consideration for default assessments of a business's tax liabilities.