Program overview
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has a responsibility to protect public revenue and maintain community confidence in the integrity of the tax system. Our passenger movements data-matching program will help us mitigate loss of government revenue.
The data in this program is not used directly to initiate automated compliance activity. Taxpayers selected for our compliance activities are identified through other methods.
Under this data-matching program, Home Affairs will provide current and historical passenger movement data for individuals being assessed where necessary.
The data collected under this program will be used:
- to verify identity and residency status for registration purposes
- in ATO risk detection models
- as an indicator of residency to help us profile, determine and assess candidates for residency status for Australian tax and superannuation.
It will also allow us to identify and address several taxation risks, including:
- incorrect reporting of income within income tax returns and activity statements
- failure to meet registration and lodgment obligations within the tax and superannuation system
- insights from the program inform treatment strategies to improve voluntary compliance through education on taxation obligations.
The data may also be used as part of the methodologies by which we select taxpayers for compliance activities.
It will prevent unnecessary contact with taxpayers, where the data supports client reported information.
In addition, the data will supplement our existing visa data-matching program by ensuring at the time of assessment the most current movement records are made available.
We don't use passenger movements data to initiate automated action or activities.
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 passenger movements data-matching program are to:
- promote voluntary compliance and increase community confidence in the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems
- improve knowledge of the overall level of identity and residency compliance risks including registration, lodgment, reporting and payment obligations
- gain insights from the data to help develop and implement administrative strategies to improve voluntary compliance, which may include educational or compliance activities
- identify ineligible claims for tax and superannuation entitlements
- refine existing risk detection models and treatment systems to identify and educate individuals and businesses who may be failing to meet their registration, lodgment and payment obligations and help them comply
- identify potentially new or emerging non-compliance and entities controlling or exploiting those methodologies.
Why we look at passenger movement data
The passenger movements data-matching program will allow us to identify and address a number of tax risks, as Australian income tax obligations for business entities and individuals are treated differently depending on residency status.
As an individual, you will fit into one of the following categories:
There are separate rules for working holiday makers and individuals who are tax residents of more than one country.
More information on residency categories is available at Work out your tax residency.
For business entities, there are different residency criteria for: