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, superannuation, and registry systems.
The objectives of the Officeholder data-matching program are to:
- enable the Australian Business Registry Service (ABRS)External LinkExternal Link to increase uptake of the Director Identification Number (director ID) through better information on officeholders recorded by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)
- effectively link persons known to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to officeholders and their associated companies as recorded on the ASIC Companies Register, the ORIC Register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations, and the ACNC Charity Register
- issue effective correspondence with officeholders regarding their director ID obligations
- identify, deter, and disrupt those promoting or engaging in illegal phoenix activity
- better utilise registry data to combat unlawful activity.
Why we look at this data
The ABRS is responsible for administering the director ID service. The introduction of director ID requires directors of Australian Companies and other entities as recorded on the ASIC Companies Register, or of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation registered with ORIC, to apply for a director ID.
This will help prevent the use of false and fraudulent director identities and make it easier for government regulators to identify and address director involvement in unlawful activities, such as illegal phoenix activities.
The director ID service is administered by the ABRS within the ATO. The administration of director ID relies on establishing a link between an ATO client record and an officeholder appointment as recorded on the ASIC Companies Register, the ORIC register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations, or the ACNC Charity register.
By matching an officeholder appointment to an ATO record the ABRS can:
- establish whether an individual director is meeting their obligation to have a director ID
- identify other officeholders.
ABRS may also share director ID information as matched to an officeholder back to ASIC, ORIC or the ACNC as appropriate to support their administrative functions when required.
The matched data outputs will strengthen the integrity of the registry system by improving the quality and availability of registry and director ID data. It will also assist in providing transparency of director activity and revealing potential involvement in unlawful activity, including illegal phoenix activity. We can potentially identify individual officeholders that sit with companies that interact with us by using matched data output.
Matching officeholders as recorded by ASIC, ORIC and ACNC to an ATO record enables our phoenix compliance program to identify, deter, and disrupt those promoting or engaging in illegal phoenix activity by:
- working to disrupt their business model and make it financially unviable
- removing their ability to operate
- applying financial penalties
- prosecuting the worst offenders.
The officeholder data-matching program will allow us to identify and address registry and tax risks, including:
- improving director ID compliance
- better detecting director and company fraud, illegal behaviours, and associated networks
- supporting taskforce programs including the Phoenix Taskforce.