About the Next 5,000 private groups tax performance program
The Next 5,000 private groups tax performance program seeks to give the community confidence that Australia's largest privately owned and wealthy groups are paying the right amount of tax. It is one of the programs funded by the Tax Avoidance Taskforce.
By working with Next 5,000 private groups, we aim to increase ongoing and willing participation in the tax and super system. The information and findings we gather from working with Next 5,000 private groups improves our awareness of the population and is used in our development of a range of differentiated strategies we employ.
Who is covered by this program
We use sophisticated data matching and analytic models to identify Australian resident individuals who, together with their associates, control wealth of more than $50 million. We then consider all entities within a group.
Our private group approach helps us to better understand private group businesses and provide you with a tailored experience.
The Next 5,000 private groups tax performance program doesn't include private groups in our Top 500 private groups tax performance program.
How we tailor our approach to you
To better tailor our approach and develop strategies to address and mitigate tax risks, we identify trends and priority issues specific to Next 5,000 private groups. We work with you by:
- letting you know about issues that attract our attention
- providing certainty on significant commercial deals through early engagement and pre-lodgment agreements
- engaging through tailored reviews and, where appropriate, audits.
Our tailored approach includes working with groups to provide certainty on the tax treatment of significant events, transactions, or complex tax issues. A key focus of all our engagements is early resolution, where appropriate. This may involve correcting tax errors and improving existing processes to help you get things right and avoid similar errors.
Where groups are unwilling to work with us in an open and transparent way, we:
- take firmer action, such as audits
- use our formal information gathering powers.
Types of engagement you can expect
We select the most appropriate type of engagement for your group based on:
- the size and structural complexity of your operations
- results from our data analytics and risk models.
Broadly, we use 3 types of engagement in the Next 5,000 private groups tax performance program:
- streamlined assurance reviews
- reviews focussed on risks specific to your group
- pre-lodgment compliance agreement for your commercial deals and restructure events.
Streamlined assurance reviews
For large groups and those with complex structures, our approach is to engage on a one-to-one basis through a streamlined assurance review, seeking to assure the right amount of tax has been paid in relation to the significant transactions, activities and events reviewed.
Reviews focussed on risks specific to your group
For the remaining Next 5,000 private groups, we undertake reviews focussed on specific risks and issues. We base case selection on our profiling and data analytics. These relate to:
- the presence of key risks and issues
- any new emerging issues affecting private groups.
We use a combination of comprehensive and specific reviews. Typically:
- Comprehensive reviews are used where we have identified multiple potential issues or risks within your group, or a single entity within your group.
- Specific reviews are used where we have identified simple or 1 or 2 potential issues or risks within your group, or a single entity within your group.
GST-integrated reviews
We also undertake Goods and Services Tax (GST) integrated reviews as part of the program. These reviews consider potential GST risks or issues. We will request information and documentation from you in support of your GST treatment.
Next 5,000 findings report
We have published our Findings report for the Next 5,000 tax performance program. This is based on our findings, current as at 30 June 2024.
The report includes:
- our observations and insights on the tax performance of Next 5,000 private groups that we have engaged with through streamlined assurance reviews, risk reviews and audits
- common tax issues, risk themes and behaviours, and the importance of good tax governance and record keeping
- the profile of a typical Next 5,000 group and the characteristics that define the Next 5,000 population
- an outline of how we engage with a Next 5,000 group
- how we apply the justified trust methodology in our streamlined assurance reviews
- our observations on the GST issues we have observed arising from significant activities, events or transactions.