Find out about the purpose and objectives of this program.
Program objectives
Our data-matching programs help us fulfil our responsibility to protect public revenue and maintain community confidence in the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems.
The objectives of the motor vehicle registries data-matching program are to:
- help ensure that individuals and businesses are fulfilling their tax and superannuation reporting obligations
- identify and educate those individuals and businesses who may be failing to meet their registration or lodgment obligations (or both) and assist them to comply
- obtain intelligence about taxpayers that buy and sell motor vehicles to identify risks and trends of non-compliance with tax and superannuation obligations
- identify and address taxpayers buying and selling motor vehicles who may not be meeting their obligations to register and lodge returns (including activity statements) and ensure the correct reporting of income and entitlement to both deductions and input tax credits
- use the motor vehicle purchaser’s data as an indicator of risk, along with other data holdings, to identify taxpayers that have purchased vehicles with values that are not commensurate with the income they have reported
- identify cases for investigation of taxpayers of interest, such as sellers, licenced dealers, fleet managers, leasing companies or representatives of these taxpayers to determine if the use of interposed proxy ownership is used to conceal the real accumulation of wealth, therefore representing a material threat to public revenue
- identify and deal with those taxpayers who may not have met their obligations primarily with regards to GST, fringe benefits tax, luxury car tax, fuel schemes and income tax
- promote voluntary compliance and strengthen community confidence in the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems by publicising the running of this data matching program.
Why we look at this data
Our motor vehicle registries data-matching program has been operating for 19 years in various iterations.
The motor vehicle registries data matching program has been developed to assess the overall tax compliance of individuals and businesses involved in buying and selling motor vehicles. We will match the data provided by state and territory motor vehicle registry authorities against ATO taxpayer records with the intent of identifying those who are not participating in the tax and superannuation system by meeting their registration, reporting, lodgment and payment obligations.
Information will be acquired from state and territory motor vehicle registry authorities where their records indicate that both:
- a vehicle has been transferred or newly registered during the 2022–23, 2023–24 and 2024–25 financial years
- the purchase price or market value is equal to or greater than $10,000. This threshold was determined by review of vehicle prices trends and cost/benefit assessment.
The motor vehicle registries data-matching program will allow us to identify and address several tax risks, including:
- GST, fringe benefit tax, luxury car tax, fuel schemes and income tax compliance activities
- identifying higher risk taxpayers with outstanding lodgments and undeclared income whose asset holdings may not be proportionate to their declared financial position
- providing a holistic view of a taxpayer's financial position
- supporting our compliance areas with modelling and case identification
- supporting taskforce programs including the shadow economy.
Note: The term ‘black economy’ has now changed to shadow economy. This change reflects the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) definition of unreported or dishonest economic activity.