How we collect information about you
To administer the tax laws, we collect information about you. We may get this information from:
- you
- your authorised representative
- another government agency or organisation which provides information for data matching.
Complying with privacy legislation
We respect your privacy and keep your information confidential by complying with the following:
- the Privacy Act 1988External Link, which contains provisions designed to safeguard personal information about living individuals. The Privacy Act requires us to comply with the Australian Privacy PrinciplesExternal Link (APP) set out in that Act
- the Australian Government Agencies Privacy CodeExternal Link, which requires us to put in place practices, procedures and systems to ensure agencies comply with the APPs and the Privacy Act 1988
- taxpayer confidentiality provisions in tax law, which protect information about all taxpayers, whether they are individuals or other kinds of taxpayers such as companies.
In some circumstances, the law allows us to disclose your information to others for specific purposes. For example, we have data-matching programs that comply with all government data-matching guidelines.
Our privacy policy and privacy notices
Our ATO privacy policy provides more detail on the collection, storage, use and disclosure of the personal information we hold about you and how you can access or seek to amend that information. It also contains information about what you can do if you are not satisfied with how your information has been treated.
You can access the privacy notices for all our forms, calculators and tools from Your privacy.
Privacy concerns or complaints
If you think that your privacy or the confidentiality of your tax information has been breached because of our actions, you should talk to us as soon as possible. If you have already been dealing with a tax officer, your first step should be to try to resolve the issue with them. If you are not satisfied, talk to the tax officer's manager. For more information, see Complaints, compliments and suggestions
If you are not satisfied with the way we have handled your complaint, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner – Privacy CommissionerExternal Link may be able to help you.