The Commissioner has Gazetted a notice that he will acquire details of insurance policies for certain classes of assets, including marine vessels, enthusiast motor vehicles, thoroughbred horses, fine art and aircraft where the value exceeds nominated thresholds for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years. The ATO said it will obtain policy holder identification details (names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, etc) and insurance policy details. The data matching program will assist the ATO with profiling taxpayers (providing the ATO with a view of a taxpayer’s wealth), identifying possible tax compliance issues, and identifying avenues available to assist in debt management activities. It is estimated that records of more than 100,000 insurance policies will be obtained.
The ATO has also Gazetted a notice that he will acquire details of individuals in receipt of family tax benefit part B, paid parental leave, carer allowance and Medicare entitlement statements from the Department of Human Services (Centrelink and Medicare) for the 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years for data matching purposes also. Among other things, the ATO said the data matching program will assist it to ensure that taxpayers are correctly claiming entitlement to the invalid and invalid carer tax offset and the exemption from payment of the Medicare levy and Medicare care levy surcharge. It is estimated that records for more than 2m individuals will be obtained for each financial year.
[LTN 30, 16/2/16] [ComLaw Gazette Notice – Dept Human Services]
Gazetted Notice of Data Matching from Insurance Companies
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire details of insurance policies for certain classes of assets, including marine vessels, enthusiast motor vehicles, thoroughbred horses, fine art and aircraft where the value exceeds nominated thresholds for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years.
The data items that will be obtained are personal details of:
- Policy holder identification details (names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, etc)
- Insurance policy details (policy number, start and end date, asset insured, physical location of the asset etc).
It is estimated that records of more than 100,000 insurance policies will be obtained.
A full list of the specialist and general insurers we will be obtaining data from is contained in the data matching program protocol (refer below for a link to this document).
These records will be electronically matched with ATO data holdings to identify non-compliance with registration, lodgment, reporting and payment obligations under taxation laws.
The objectives of this data matching program are to:
- Assist with profiling taxpayers, providing compliance staff with a holistic view of a taxpayer’s wealth
- Identify possible compliance issues with income tax, capital gains tax, fringe benefits tax, GST and superannuation obligations
- Identify avenues available to assist in debt management activities
- Promote voluntary compliance and strengthen community confidence in the integrity of the taxation and superannuation systems
- Ensure compliance with registration, lodgment, correct reporting and payment of taxation and superannuation obligations.
A document describing this program has been prepared in consultation with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. A copy of this document is available at www.ato.gov.au/dmprotocols .
[ComLaw Gazette Notices]