How we use passenger movements data
Data analytics and insights
The data helps us:
- determine the residency status of business entities and individuals for Australian income tax obligations identify relevant cases for administrative action including compliance activities and educational strategies
- after a return is lodged, if we need to verify a discrepancy, we'll contact the taxpayer by phone, letter or email
- before we take any administrative action, the taxpayer will be able to verify the accuracy of the information we hold. They will have 28 days to respond before we take administrative action associated with passenger movement data use
- avoid unnecessary contact with individuals who are correctly reporting and claiming Australian income and deductions
- make it easier for our clients to interact with the system and get their affairs right.
Previous related programs
The ATO has been conducting the passenger movements data-matching program since March 2020.
The most recent data-matching protocol for this program was published in July 2023 and covered data from the 2016–17 to 2025–26 financial years.
This protocol outlines our intention to continue collecting passenger movements data from the 2026–27 to 2028–29 financial years.
Previous data-matching programs have broadly achieved their stated goals in identifying candidates for review and audit, who may be failing to meet their registration and lodgment obligations, including assisting them to comply.
We also conduct the:
- Visa holder data-matching program – this has been operating for more than 10 years
- Higher Education Loan Program (HELP)
- Vocational Education and Training Student Loans (VSL)
- Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans (AASL) – previously known as Trade Support Loans (TSL).
Data providers
The passenger movements data is provided by Department of Home Affairs. We are the matching agency and, in most cases the sole user of the data obtained during this data-matching program.
Home Affairs legislation
The Movement Reconstruction (MR) database contains records of passenger movements into and out of Australia since June 1981. Under the Migration Act 1958 (the Migration Act), the MR database is a notified database.
There are restrictions regarding access to and disclosure of information from the database. These are detailed in subsection 488(1) of the Migration Act. A penalty of imprisonment of 2 years can apply for unauthorised access, and access is audited.
Under the Migration Act, the ATO has direct access to the MR database. Only relevant ATO employees are authorised to access movement records for prescribed purposes.
This is in accordance with paragraph 488(2)(g) of the Migration Act and the Instrument made under sub-regulation 3.10A(2) of the Migration Regulations 1994, which specifies the prescribed employees, agencies, and purposes of the Migration Act.
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) – we reasonably believe that the use of the information is reasonably necessary for our enforcement-related activities.
Data elements we collect
Data will be collected from 2019–20 to 2028–29 financial years for selected individuals.
Client identification details – individuals
The following identification details of an individual will be collected:
- full name
- date of birth
- arrival date
- departure date
- passport information (travel document ID, country code)
- status types (visa status, residency, lawful, Australian citizen).
Number of records
We expect to collect data on approximately 115,000 individuals each financial year for this program.
Data retention
We collect data under this program for all financial years from 2019–20 to 2028–29. The data collection is expected to occur daily using an automated system to system access process.
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, for both general and ATO-specific data.
We will retain each financial year’s data for 5 years from receipt of the final instalment of verified data files. This is obtained from the data providers.
The data is required for this period for the protection of public revenue as:
- travel frequently covers periods longer than one financial year
- individuals identified as not meeting their tax or superannuation obligations, including being partly or wholly outside the tax and superannuation systems, may have been operating that way for multiple years
- the data enhances our ability to identify taxpayers who may not be complying with their tax and superannuation obligations, which is integral to protecting the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems
- it supports our general compliance approach of reviewing an assessment within the standard period of review, which aligns with the requirements for taxpayers to keep their records
- the data is also used for 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. Our systems and controls are designed to ensure the privacy and security of the data we manage.