Taxable government grants and payments letter

Receiving your letter

You may receive a letter if the information we receive indicates you obtained a government grant or payment and you did not include this income in your tax return.

In line with our taxable government grants and payments data-matching protocol, we request data from various federal, state and local government agencies to match with information we hold.

The letter will include a schedule showing the relevant information from your tax return compared with information we hold.

What you need to do

You need to review the taxable government grant or payment schedule and compare the information with your records. You can then determine if you agree or disagree.

If you have a question about your data-matching letter, phone us on 1300 768 912, and select option 3 between 8:00 am and 6:00 pm, Monday to Friday.

Quote the reference number from your letter when you contact us. You can find it at the top right of your letter.

Below is a sample schedule of the taxable government grant or payment schedule on the letter. Keep in mind that your letter will contain your own details and may not look exactly like this. The definitions will help explain your schedule.

Sample: taxable government grant or payment schedule

Income schedule for the year ended 30 June 2022
Source of income (entity name)	Payer ABN/ Account number	Amount included in your tax return ($)	Amount reported to us by a third party ($)	Difference ($)
Department/council – Assessable government industry payment	00 123 456 789	$0	$20,000	$20,000
Department/council – Other gross income	00 123 456 789	$3,000	$25,000	$28,000

Definitions to understand your schedule

The following definitions will help you understand your schedule:

Tax return item and description – the relevant item on your tax return.
Amount you declared – the amount you declared against each applicable item on your tax return.
Discrepancy – the difference between the amount you declared on your tax return and the amount that has been reported to us.
Proposed adjustment amount – the amount we propose to include on your tax return.
Payer ABN – the ABN of the reporting payer for each source of income, as reported to us.
Source of income/entity name – the name of the reporting payer for each source of income, as reported to us.
Amount – the amount of income reported to us.

If you agree

If you agree with the information provided in the letter, you don't have to contact us or take action. We will change your tax return to include the information provided. We will send you an amended notice of assessment after 28 days.

If you realise that, in addition to the amounts we have shown, you have omitted income from other sources or from the same source in other income years, you should give us the details so we can include it in your amended assessments.

We continually check for missing, inaccurate or incomplete information on tax returns.

Once you receive your amended notice of assessment, you'll need to pay any amounts you owe us by the due date.

If you disagree

If you disagree with the information provided, you need to let us know before the due date in your letter. You must also provide supporting documents that show how the amounts are incorrect.

You can contact us by either:

mail to
Australian Taxation Office
PO Box 3543
ALBURY NSW 2640
email to
datamatchingteam@ato.gov.au

The internet isn't a secure environment and we don't control the path of inbound and outbound emails. If you choose to communicate with us by email, we can't guarantee the privacy of your personal information.

If you respond by the due date

Once we have assessed your response, you'll receive an amended notice of assessment. The case officer reviewing your supporting documents may contact you if we require additional information.

If you don't respond

If we don't receive a response from you within 28 days of your letter's date of issue, we'll automatically amend your tax return using the information we have. You'll then receive an amended notice of assessment.

Supporting documents

If you disagree with information in the letter about your taxable government grants and payments, we may ask you to provide supporting documents as evidence of your exemption. This may include:

documents supplied by the agency, indicating the payment was not business-related
bank statements for relevant review periods
invoices issued during relevant review periods
a letter from the agency, providing an explanation of the nature of payments made in the period under review
payment remittance advices or summaries provided by the agency
business schedules.

The documents we ask you to provide will depend on your individual circumstances.