We will notify the public of our intention to collect 2020–21 to 2022–23 data by:
- publishing a notice in the Federal Register of Legislation gazettes in the week commencing 7 June 2021
- publishing this data-matching program protocol on our website at ato.gov.au/dmprotocols
- advising the data providers that they
- can notify their clients of their participation in this program
- 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 data-matching program
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire account identification and transaction data from cryptocurrency designated service providers for the 2021 financial year through to the 2023 financial year inclusively. The data items include:
- Client identification details (names, addresses, date of birth, phone numbers, social media account and email addresses)
- Transaction details (bank account details, wallet addresses, transaction dates, transaction time, transaction type, deposits, withdrawals, transaction quantities and coin type)
We estimate that records relating to approximately 400,000 to 600,000 individuals will be obtained each financial year.
The data will be acquired and matched to ATO systems to identify and treat clients who failed to report a disposal of cryptocurrency in their income tax return. Furthermore, the matching process strengthens our ability to develop tailored treatments for clients who may not be meeting their obligations. These obligations may include registration, lodgment, reporting and payment responsibilities.
The objectives of this program are to:
- promote voluntary compliance by communicating how we use external data with our own to help encourage taxpayers to comply with their tax and superannuation obligations
- identify and educate those individuals and businesses that may be failing to meet their registration and/or lodgment obligations and assist them to comply.
- gain insights from the data that may help to develop and implement treatment strategies to improve voluntary compliance; this may include educational or compliance activities as appropriate.
- gain insights from the data to increase the ATO’s understanding of the behaviours and compliance profiles of individuals and businesses that have bought, sold or accepted payment via cryptocurrency
- help ensure that individuals and businesses that trade or accept cryptocurrency as payment are fulfilling their taxation lodgment, reporting and payment obligations.
- help ensure that individuals and businesses are fulfilling their tax and superannuation reporting obligations.
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.
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