Notifying the public
We first published details about the Income protection insurance data-matching program on 9 June 2023.
This program has been amended on 11 March 2024 to include:
an additional data provider
a restructure of the data dictionary which allows data providers to better report details for policies that are held by more than one person
an additional indicator which identifies whether the policy is held within a superannuation fund or not.
We notify the public of our intention to collect income protection insurance 2021–22 to 2025–26 data by:
- publishing an amendment notice in the Federal Register of LegislationExternal Link gazette in the week starting 3 July 2023
- 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of Taxation – Notice of an amendment to the 9 June income protection insurance (IPI) data-matching program, superseded by this 7 July 2023 notice.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire income protection insurance policy data from insurers for 2021–22 to 2025–26.
The data items include:
- policy owner details (names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, account name, BSB, account number etc.)
- policy details (policy name, year, policy type, policy brand, start/end dates, premiums, payouts etc.)
- insured person details (names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, account name, BSB, account number etc.).
We estimate that records relating to approximately 850,000 individuals will be obtained each financial year.
The objectives of this program are to:
- help ensure that individuals and businesses are fulfilling their tax and superannuation reporting obligations. These obligations may include registration, lodgment, reporting and payment responsibilities
- identify and educate individuals and businesses who may be failing to meet their registration or lodgment obligations and help them
- lodge their income tax returns
- correctly report assessable income from an IPI claim at label 1 – Salary and Wages or label 24 – Other income in their individual income tax return
- correctly report deductible premiums paid towards an IPI policy at label D15 – Other deductions in their individual income tax return
- gain insights to help develop and implement strategies to improve voluntary compliance. This may include educational or compliance activities for individuals and businesses who own or are insured by an IPI policy
- promote voluntary compliance and increase community confidence in the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems.
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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