ato logo
Search Suggestion:

Government payments program 2017–18 to 2022–23 data-matching program protocol

Government payments program data-matching program 2017-18 to 2022-23.

Last updated 5 October 2021

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has developed the Government payments program data-matching program. This is a new data-matching program focused on third-party service providers that receive payments from government entities for providing services.

About the data-matching program

Government entities pay billions of dollars to third party providers to deliver services for many of the programs they administer. The government entities using these service providers have accountability for ensuring the proper use of public resources. The service providers who receive these payments are responsible for meeting their tax and superannuation obligations.

The ATO is responsible for collecting revenue and maintaining community confidence in the integrity of the tax and super system.

The Government payments program data-matching program will enable the ATO to:

  • identify and address non-compliance with tax and super obligations by service providers receiving government payments
  • maximise the value of ATO data to government entities (in accordance with the current data sharing legislative framework)
  • work more effectively with government entities to deliver greater system integrity across a range of programs.

Fraudulent and non-compliant behaviour by service providers creates expenditure and revenue risk, a risk to community confidence and an unlevel playing field. The data-matching program will enable government entities and the ATO to deliver more effective risk treatment strategies.

In 2019 the ATO commenced a pilot involving several government entities to assess the risk to tax revenue from payments to service providers. The pilot data was tested against the four tax pillars of registration, reporting, lodgment and payment and identified integrity issues across all four pillars.

For this data-matching program, the ATO will match data on government payments made to service providers against ATO records. The data will be analysed to identify risks, trends and compliance issues. The ATO will use the results of the data analysis to pursue opportunities to strengthen the integrity of the system and to develop treatment responses to identified tax and super risks. Feedback will be provided to the government entities at an aggregate agency and/or program level and where allowed by legislation at an individual provider level.

This data-matching program follows the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) Guidelines on data matching in Australian Government administration (2014). The guidelines assist Australian Government agencies to use data-matching as an administrative tool in a way that:

  • complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act)
  • is consistent with good privacy practice.

Why we look at government payments data

The Government payments program data-matching program will allow us to identify and address the following tax and super risks:

  • registration obligations – check correct registration for  
    • Australian business number (ABN)
    • Tax file number (TFN)
    • Goods and services tax (GST)
    • Pay as you go (PAYG) withholding
     
  • lodgment obligations – check for outstanding income tax returns, business activity statements and fringe benefits tax returns
  • correct reporting – compare government entity payment to service provider data against the taxpayer income records to assess if providers are reporting correctly
  • payment – check outstanding debt and assess a service provider's payment history and ability to pay tax and super obligations as they fall due

The data-matching program will also build our understanding of the risk landscape. It will allow us to identify specific indicators in the service provider population, including serious organised crime, phoenix and unexplained wealth.

Program objectives

The objectives of the Government payments program data-matching program are to:

  • get reliable data about the service providers receiving government payments – which can then be analysed to identify and assess risks and trends of non-compliance within the service provider population
  • enable the ATO to work with service providers and government entities to get a better understanding of the environment and the risks
  • identify service providers that may be operating outside of the tax system
  • identify and educate service providers who may be failing to meet their registration, lodgment, reporting and/or payment obligations and assist them to comply
  • identify service providers not complying with their tax and super obligations and develop a range of engagement activities appropriate to address risks
  • promote voluntary compliance and strengthen community confidence in the integrity of the tax and super systems
  • gain insights to shape future treatment strategies, which may include educational or compliance activities as appropriate
  • identify opportunities to improve system integrity and as a result mitigate tax revenue risk and government entity expenditure risk.

How we use the data

The data in this program will be used to:

  • identify and address non-compliance with tax and super obligations by service providers receiving government payments for delivering services
  • support government entities in their understanding of any identified tax and super risks associated with the specific programs being examined.

The data will:

  • be incorporated into the methodologies by which we select taxpayers for engagement activities
  • enhance data currently received from government entities through the Taxable Payments Annual Report.

The ATO will not use the data-matching program data to initiate automated actions or activities.

In this section

Our previous related programs

This is a new data-matching program.

A pilot was undertaken with the government entities for the programs listed below.

The pilot:

  • sampled data on government payments provided to service providers for the 2017–18 and 2018–19 income years
  • provided a view of integrity risk across the four tax pillars of registration, reporting, lodgment and payment
  • data allowed the ATO to provide the participating government entities with aggregate reports showing levels of compliance with tax obligations by the service providers operating within their programs
  • data standard was suitable to meet the aims of the data-matching program.

Data providers

The ATO is the matching agency and the primary user of the data obtained during the Government payments program data-matching program.

Feedback will be provided to agencies in line with our lawful role.

Data will be obtained from the following agencies and programs:

  • Clean Energy Regulator  
    • Large-scale Renewable Energy Target
    • Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme
     
  • Comcare  
    • Services provided under Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988
     
  • Department of Education (formally Department of Education, Skills and Employment)  
    • Child Care Subsidy
     
  • Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (formally Department of Education, Skills and Employment)
    • VET FEE-HELP Scheme
    • VET Student Loans Program
    • Employment Services
     
  • Department of Health and Aged Care (formally Department of Health) 
    • Aged Care Subsidy
    • Hearing Services Program
    • Commonwealth Home Support Programme
     
  • Department of Home Affairs  
    • Youth Transition Support Services
    • National Community Hubs
    • Humanitarian Settlement Program
    • Australian Cultural Orientation Program
    • Adult Migrant English Program
    • Free Translating Service
    • Settlement Engagement and Transition Support Program
     
  • Department of Veterans' Affairs  
    • Health treatment programs
     
  • National Disability Insurance Agency  
    • National Disability Insurance Scheme
     
  • National Indigenous Australians Agency  
    • Indigenous Advancement Strategy
     

Eligibility as a data provider

We adopt a principles-based approach to ensure that our selection of data providers is fair and transparent.

Inclusion of a data provider is based on the following principles:

  • The data owner facilitates a government program in Australia that is governed by Australian law.
  • The data owner makes payments for services delivered by providers which support the administration of their program.
  • The data owner provided or will provide payment data for the years in focus.
  • If 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.

The data providers will be reviewed annually against the eligibility principles.

Data acquisition

Our formal information gathering powers

If appropriate to ensure statutory requirements are met, the data will be obtained under our formal information gathering powers contained in section 353-10 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953.

This is a coercive power that obligates the data providers to provide the information requested.

Data provider disclosures

Some participating government agencies also rely on their own disclosure provisions within the data provider's legislation as listed below:

  • Department of Health – Section 86-3 of the Aged Care Act 1997.
  • National Disability Insurance Agency – Sub-paragraph 66(1)(b)(i) of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013.
  • Clean Energy Regulator – Section 49 of the Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011.
  • Department of Education of Education Skills and Employment – Subsection 168(1)(a) of A New System Assistance (Administration) Act 1999 (Cth) and paragraphs 9, 15 and 16 of the Family Assistance (Public Interest Certificate Guidelines) (Education) Determination 2018.
Voluntary

Some participating government agencies may provide data voluntarily.

Privacy Act

Data will only be used within the limits prescribed by Australian Privacy Principle 6 (APP6) contained in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act and in particular:

  • APP6.2(b) – the use of the information is required or authorised by an Australian law.
  • APP6.2(e) – the ATO reasonably believes that the use of the information is reasonably necessary for our enforcement-related activities.

Keeping data safe

The data-matching program will be conducted on our secure systems that comply with the requirements of:

All ATO computer systems are strictly controlled according to Australian Government security standards for government ICT systems, with features including:

  • system access controls and security groupings
  • login identification codes and password protection
  • full audit trails of data files and system accesses.

We will use our secure internet-based data transfer facility to obtain the data from source entities.

Data elements collected

We negotiate with the selected data providers individually to obtain data held within their systems. The collected data may contain all or a selection of the fields listed below. This list may evolve as different data elements are identified.

Service provider identification details – individuals

  • Service provider given name(s) and surname(s)
  • Date(s) of birth
  • Addresses (residential, postal, other)
  • Australian business number (if applicable)
  • Service type
  • Email address
  • Contact phone number

Service provider identification details – non-individuals

  • Service provider business name
  • Addresses (business, postal, registered, other)
  • Australian business number
  • Australian company number (ACN) (if applicable)
  • Organisation or service type
  • Contact name
  • Email address
  • Contact phone number

Payment details

  • Service provider ID
  • Name of service
  • Type of service (linked to program)
  • Value of payments received for the relevant financial year(s)
  • Count of claim
  • Type of claim
  • Withholding and re-credit amount

Number of records

This data collection is expected to obtain details on approximately 36,000 service providers each financial year.

Within this 36,000, we expect there will be approximately 11,000 individuals each financial year. The remainder will consist of companies, partnerships, trusts and government entities.

Data quality

We anticipate that the data quality will be suitable to meet the needs of the data-matching program based on data acquired to date.

Administrators of government programs have sophisticated computer systems and regulatory obligations to maintain the quality of their records.

The data is sourced from providers' systems and may not be available in a format that can be readily processed by our systems.

We apply extra levels of scrutiny and analytics to verify the quality of the data. This includes but is not limited to:

  • meeting with data providers to understand their data holdings, including their data use, data currency, formats, compatibility and natural systems
  • sampling data to ensure it is fit for purpose before fully engaging providers on task
  • verification practices at receipt of data to check against confirming documentation; we then use algorithms and other analytical methods to refine the data.

Data is transformed into a standardised format and validated to ensure that it contains the required data elements prior to loading to our computer systems.

We conduct program evaluations to measure effectiveness before determining whether to continue to collect future years of the data or to discontinue the program.

To assure data is fit for consumption and maintains integrity throughout the data-matching program, it is assessed against the 11 elements of the ATO data-quality framework:

  1. accuracy – the degree to which the data correctly represents the actual value
  2. completeness – if all expected data in a data set is present
  3. consistency – whether data values in a data set are consistent with values elsewhere within the data set or in another data set
  4. currency – how recent the time period is that the data set covers
  5. precision – the level of detail of a data element
  6. privacy – access control and usage monitoring
  7. reasonableness – reasonable data is within the bounds of common sense or specific operational context
  8. referential integrity – when all intended references within a data set or with other data sets, are valid
  9. timeliness – how quickly the data is available for use from the time of collection
  10. uniqueness – if duplicated files or records are in the data set
  11. validity – data values are presented in the correct format and fall within a predefined set of values.

Data retention

The collection of data under this program includes all financial years from 2017–18 to 2022–23.

The pilot data collection occurred between November 2019 and June 2020. The data collection is intended to be undertaken annually, occurring between May to July each year.

Due to the number of data providers, we will collect data periodically. We will work co-operatively with the data providers and aim to balance our requests against peaks and troughs of demand in a data provider's own business.

We destroy data that is no longer required, in accordance with the Archives Act 1983, and the records authorities issued by the National Archives of Australia, both general and ATO-specific.

We will keep each financial year’s data for five years when we receive the final instalment of verified data files from the data providers.

The data is required to be kept for five years to protect public revenue as:

  • it enables us to conduct long-term trend analysis of government payment data to identify risks and develop treatment strategies for taxation obligations to help improve the integrity of government payments
  • the data enhances our ability to identify taxpayers who may not be complying with their tax and super obligations, which is integral to protecting the integrity of the tax and super systems
  • it supports our general compliance approach of reviewing an assessment within the standard period of review, which also aligns with the requirements for taxpayers to maintain their records
  • the data is also used in multiple risk models, including models that establish retrospective profiles over multiple years aligned with the period of review.

While increased data-retention periods may increase the risk to privacy, we have a range of safeguards to appropriately manage and minimise this. ATO systems and controls are designed to ensure the privacy and security of the data we manage.

See also  

Public notification of the program

We will notify the public of our intention to collect 2017–18 to 2022–23 Government payments program data by:

  • publishing a notice in the Federal Register of Legislation gazettes in the week commencing 4 October 2021.
  • publishing this at data-matching program protocol
  • advising the data providers that they  
    • can notify their clients of their participation in this program, and
    • should update their privacy policies to note that personal information is disclosed to the ATO for data-matching purposes.
     

Gazette notice content

The following information about the data-matching program appears as a gazette notice in the Federal Register of Legislation.

Gazette notice: Commissioner of Taxation – Notice of a government payments program data-matching program 6 October 2021

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire government payments data from government entities who administer government programs for 2017–18 to 2022–23 financial years.

The data items include:

  • service provider identification details (names, addresses, phone numbers, email, dates of birth, service type, ABN, ACN)
  • payment details (service provider ID, name of service, type of service linked to program, value of payments received for the financial year, count and type of claim, withholding and re-credit amount).

We estimate that records relating to approximately 36,000 service providers will be obtained each financial year.

It is expected, within the 36,000 service providers approximately 11,000 individuals each financial year will be included. The remainder will consist of companies, partnerships, trusts and government entities.

The data will be acquired and matched to identify and address non-compliance with tax and super obligations including registration, lodgment, reporting and payment responsibilities.

This will allow us to:

  • identify and address non-compliance with tax and super obligations by service providers receiving government payments for delivering services
  • support agencies in their understanding of any identified tax or super risks associated with the specific programs being examined.

The objectives of this program are to:

  • obtain reliable data about the service providers receiving government payments, which can then be analysed to identify and assess risks and trends of non-compliance within the service provider population
  • enable the ATO to work with service providers and government entities to obtain a better understanding of the environment and the risks
  • identify service providers that may be operating outside of the tax system
  • identify and educate service providers who may be failing to meet their registration, lodgment, reporting and/or payment obligations and assist them to comply
  • identify service providers not complying with their tax and super obligations and develop a range of engagement activities appropriate to address risks
  • promote voluntary compliance and strengthen community confidence in the integrity of the tax and super systems
  • gain insights to shape future treatment strategies, which may include educational or compliance activities as appropriate
  • identify opportunities to improve system integrity and as a result mitigate tax revenue risk and government entity expenditure risk.

A document describing this program is available at ato.gov.au/dmprotocols.

This program follows the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s Guidelines on data matching in Australian Government administration (2014) (the guidelines). The guidelines include standards for the use of data matching as an administrative tool in a way that:

  • complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act)
  • is consistent with good privacy practice.

A full copy of the ATO’s privacy policy can be accessed at ato.gov.au/privacy.

End of example

Our lawful role

The ATO is the Australian Government’s principal revenue collection agency. The Commissioner of Taxation has responsibility for ensuring taxpayers meet their tax and superannuation obligations. Compliance with these obligations is a matter we take seriously. Failure to address non-compliant behaviour has the potential to undermine community confidence in the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems and our capability to administer those systems.

The ATO carries out its legislated functions through general powers of administration contained in but not limited to:

  • section 3A of the Taxation Administration Act 1953
  • section 8 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936
  • section 1-7 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997
  • section 43 of the Superannuation Guarantee (administration) Act 1992
  • section 356-5 in Schedule 1 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953.

Data matching is one of the strategies used to identify and deal with non-compliant behaviour. Data matching helps provide assurance that taxpayers are meeting their obligations.

Privacy Act

The Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) regulates how personal information is handled by certain entities, such as companies and government agencies.

Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act lists the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). The principles cover the collection, use, disclosure, storage and management of personal information.

Data will only be used within the limits prescribed by the APPs and the Privacy Act.

The Australian Government Agencies Privacy CodeExternal Link, embeds privacy in all government agency processes and procedures. It ensures that privacy compliance is a priority in the design of our systems, practices and culture.

We comply with the code's requirements, and we are transparent and open about what information we collect, hold and disclose. We train our staff to keep personal information safe, and all our systems and offices are protected and secure.

Our data Stewardship model upholds our data governance practices and embeds six ethical standards that guide how we collect, manage, share and use your data:

  1. Act in the public interest, be mindful of the individual
  2. Uphold privacy, security and legality
  3. Explain clearly and be transparent
  4. Engage in purposeful data activities
  5. Exercise human supervision
  6. Maintain data stewardship

How we protect your personal information

Our staff are subject to the strict confidentiality and disclosure provisions contained in Division 355 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 and include terms of imprisonment in cases of serious contravention of these provisions.

All information and records are managed in accordance with the provisions of the Archives Act 1983.

The requirement to retain data is reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the timeframes and requirements of the OAIC guidelines. We destroy data that is no longer required, in accordance with the Archives Act 1983 and the records authorities issued by the National Archives of Australia, both general and ATO-specific.

Under Section 24 of the Act, records can be disposed of where it is approved by the National Archives; required by another law, or a normal administrative practice that the Archives approves of.

Approval from National Archives is normally provided through records authorities, which are used in the process of sentencing to make decisions about keeping, destroying or transferring particular information and records.

General or ATO-specific records authorities issued by National Archives apply to our processes of verifying and assuring taxpayer compliance with tax, super and other laws administered by the ATO.

Our record management practices allow us to satisfy the OAIC guidelines and Australian Privacy Principle 11 (APP11) contained in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act 1988 and in particular:

  • APP11.1 – An APP entity must take reasonable steps to protect information from  
    • Misuse, interference and loss
    • Unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
     
  • APP11.2 – APP entity must take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify information it no longer needs.

Our on-disclosure provisions

In very limited and specific circumstances, we may be permitted by law to disclose individual records to other government agencies.

Division 355 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 sets out the government agencies we can disclose taxpayer information to, and the circumstances in which we are permitted to make those disclosures.

These include agencies responsible for:

  • state and territory revenue laws
  • payments of social welfare and health and safety programs for determining eligibility for certain types of benefits and rebates
  • overseeing super funds, corporations and financial market operators to ensure compliance with prudential regulations
  • determining entitlement to rehabilitation and compensation payments
  • law enforcement activities to assist with specific types of investigations
  • policy analysis, costing and effectiveness measurement.

Each request for information by other agencies will be assessed on its merits and must be for an admissible purpose allowed for by taxation laws. In specific permissible circumstances, on-disclosures may include de-identified datasets for statistical analysis.

See also  

How we undertake data matching

The ATO's identity-matching capability is used to identify individual and or non-individual entities reported to us from multiple external sources. The process uses both mainframe-based and mid-range applications that comply with an ATO-designed software solution (technical standard). The technical standard supports all our data-matching programs and aligns with OAIC guideline 4.7.

We use over 60 sophisticated identity-matching techniques to ensure we identify the correct taxpayer when we obtain data from third parties. These techniques use multiple identifiers to obtain an identity match.

The identity-matching process appends matching information to the original reported transaction to include an ATO identifier number and a three-character outcome code that indicates to the user the level of matching confidence for the transaction. For example, where a name, address and date of birth are available, all items are used in the identity-matching process. Very high confidence matches will occur where all fields are matched.

Additional manual processes may be undertaken where high confidence identity matches do not occur, or a decision is taken to destroy data that is no longer required.

Our manual identity-matching process involves an ATO officer reviewing and comparing third-party data identity elements against ATO information on a one-on-one basis, seeking enough common indicators to allow confirmation (or not) of an individual's identity. We commonly call this process manual uplifting.

Data analysts use various models and techniques to detect potential discrepancies, such as under-reported income or over-reported deductions. Higher risk discrepancy matches will be loaded to our case management system and allocated to compliance staff for actioning.

Lower risk discrepancy matches will be further analysed, and a decision made to take some form of compliance or educational activity, or to destroy the data.

To maintain integrity of the administration of the tax and super systems, only those with a direct and genuine ‘need to know’ can access the technical standards for our identity and discrepancy matching solutions.

When administrative action is proposed, additional checks will take place to ensure the correct taxpayer has been identified. The taxpayers will be provided with the opportunity to verify the accuracy of the information before any administrative action is taken.

See also  

What we do before we amend a return

We use data to provide tailored messages for individual taxpayers in our online services. This will prompt taxpayers to check they are correctly meeting their reporting obligations.

After a return is lodged, where we detect a discrepancy that requires verification, we will contact the taxpayer usually by phone, letter or email.

Before we take any administrative action, taxpayers will have the opportunity to verify the accuracy of the information we have obtained. Taxpayers will have at least 28 days to respond before we take administrative action.

For example, where discrepancy-matching identifies that a taxpayer may not be reporting all their income, but in fact they're reporting the income under another entity, the taxpayer will be given the opportunity to clarify the situation.

The data may also be used to ensure that taxpayers are complying with their other tax and super obligations, including registration requirements, lodgment obligations and payment responsibilities.

In cases where taxpayers fail to comply with these obligations, after being reminded of them, we may instigate prosecution action in appropriate circumstances.

Where a taxpayer has correctly met their obligations, the use of the data will reduce the likelihood of contact from us.

Making a privacy complaint

Our privacy policy outlines how we collect, hold and disclose data and explains what you can do if you're not satisfied with the way your information has been treated.

If you're not satisfied with how we have collected, held, used or disclosed your personal information, you can make a formal complaint by:

ATO Complaints
PO Box 1271
ALBURY NSW 2640.

If you're not satisfied with the outcome of the privacy complaint, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. More details on the process can be found on the OAIC websiteExternal Link.

Why we undertake data matching

To effectively administer the tax and super systems, the ATO is required by law to collect and analyse information concerning the financial affairs of taxpayers and other participants in the Australian economy.

In addition to our administrator responsibilities, the Public Service Act 1999 (PS Act) requires each agency head to ensure their agency complies with legislative and whole-of-government requirements.

Agency heads are required to ensure proper use and management of public resources as per the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act).

We consider and undertake a range of alternatives to data matching to ensure entities are complying with their tax and super obligations.

Relying only on data that we already hold is of limited value for the following reasons:

  • The tax system operates on willing participation, so our data is derived from taxpayers that are correctly registered and meeting their lodgment obligations.
  • The only other way of ensuring that taxpayers are reporting their obligations correctly would be to contact every taxpayer directly.

Data matching:

  • allows us to cross-reference suitable external data to identify taxpayers who may not be in full compliance with their obligations, as well as those that may be operating outside the tax and super systems
  • reduces the likelihood of unnecessarily contacting taxpayers who are complying with their tax obligations
  • is an effective method of examining the records of thousands of taxpayers. We do this to ensure compliance with lodgment and reporting obligations. This would otherwise be a resource-intensive exercise
  • helps us to effectively promote voluntary compliance by notifying the public of risk areas and activities under scrutiny.

Our quality assurance framework

Quality assurance is integrated into our processes and computer systems and applied throughout the data-matching cycle.

These assurance processes include:

  • registering the intention to undertake a data-matching program on an internal register
  • risk assessment and approval from the data steward and relevant senior executive service (SES) officers before any data-matching program starts
  • conducting program pilots or obtaining sample data to ensure the data-matching program will achieve its objectives prior to full datasets being obtained
  • notifying the OAIC of our intention to undertake the data-matching program and seek permission to vary from the data-matching guidelines (if applicable)
  • restricting access to the data to approved users and access management logs record details of who has accessed the data
  • quality assurance processes embedded into compliance activities, including  
    • review of risk assessments, taxpayer profiles and case plans by senior officers prior to client contact
    • ongoing reviews of cases by subject matter technical experts at key points during the life cycle of a case
    • regular independent panel reviews of samples of case work to ensure our case work is accurate and consistent.
     

These processes ensure data is collected and used in accordance with our data-management policies and principles and complies with the OAIC's data-matching guidelines.

Costs and benefits of data matching

Costs

There are some incidental costs to us in the conduct of data-matching programs, but these will be more than offset by the total revenue protected. These costs include:

  • data analyst resources to identify potential instances of non-compliance
  • compliance resources to manage casework and educational activities
  • governance resources to ensure compliance with the guidelines and Privacy Act
  • quality assurance processes to ensure the rigour of the work undertaken by analysts and compliance staff
  • storage of the data.

Benefits

The use of data is common across government agencies and the private sector. The use of data, computer power and storage continue to grow, which increases the benefits from data matching. Data matching and the insights it provides help us:

  • deliver tailored products and services, which underpins our culture of service
  • make it easier for taxpayers and agents by providing tailored messages in our online services
  • enable early intervention activities, as our goal is prevention rather than correction
  • maintain community confidence in our ability to administer the tax and super systems, because we can  
    • make better, faster and holistically smarter decisions with measurable results to deliver a level playing field for all
    • solve problems and shape what we do for the community
    • advise government and deliver outcomes with agility
     
  • maintain the integrity of the tax and super systems by  
    • providing education to assist taxpayers to do the right thing
    • deterring behaviours so taxpayers adhere to their obligations
    • detecting taxpayers who are not complying with their obligations, targeting those that continue to deliberately abuse the tax and super systems
    • enabling enforcement activity and recovery of tax revenue
    • directing compliance activities to assure that wider risks to revenue do not exist.
     

QC66918