Notice of a lifestyle assets data-matching program

Gazette notice:  Commissioner of Taxation

Notice of a lifestyle assets data-matching program 26 August 2024

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire lifestyle assets data from insurance providers for 2023-24 through to 2025-26. Insurance policy data will be collected for the following classes of assets, where the asset value is equal to or exceeds the nominated thresholds.

^*Due to how some data providers classify assets they insure, we may receive data about other types of motor vehicles and assets that are not listed in the motor vehicle asset class above.

The data items include:

• Client identification details (names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, Australian business number, email address).
• Policy details (insurance brand name, policy number, policy inception date, start date of current policy, end date of current policy, last date policy was updated, total value insured, purchase price of the property insured, registration or identification number of the property, vehicle details (year, make, model), finance, policy cost, description of the property insured, primary use type).

It is estimated that the total number of policy records obtained will be approximately 650,000 to 800,000 each financial year. We expect 250,000 to 350,000 matched records will relate to individuals. These estimates are based on what we have learnt from previous years’ data.

The data will be acquired and matched to improve our compliance risk profiling of taxpayers and provide a holistic view of their assets and accumulated wealth.

The objectives of this program are to:

• promote voluntary compliance and increase community confidence in the integrity of the tax and super systems
• assist with profiling to provide compliance staff with a holistic view of a taxpayer’s wealth
• identify possible compliance issues with income tax, capital gains tax (CGT), fringe benefits tax (FBT), goods and services tax (GST) and super obligations
• determine avenues available to assist in debt management activities
• gain insights from the data to help develop and implement treatment strategies to improve voluntary compliance, which may include educational or compliance activities as appropriate
• identify and educate those individuals and businesses who may be failing to meet their registration or lodgment obligations and assist them to comply
• help ensure that individuals and businesses are fulfilling their tax and super reporting obligations.

The lifestyle assets data-matching program will allow us to identify and address a number of taxation risks, including:

• omitted or incorrect reporting of income – taxpayers accumulating or improving assets with insufficient income reported in their tax returns to show the financial means to pay for them
• omitted or incorrect reporting of income and/or capital gains – taxpayers disposing of assets and not declaring the income and/or capital receipts on those disposals, or declaring them incorrectly
• incorrect claiming of GST credits – taxpayers may be purchasing assets for personal use through their business or related entities and claiming GST credits they are not entitled to
• omitted or incorrect reporting of FBT – taxpayers may be purchasing assets through their business entities and applying those assets to the personal enjoyment of an associate or employee giving rise to a fringe benefits tax liability
• use of assets by self-managed super funds (SMSFs) in breach of the law – SMSFs may be acquiring assets but applying them for the present-day benefit of the fund’s members or other related parties.

A document describing this program is available at ato.gov.au/dmprotocols.

This program follows the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) (2014) Guidelines on data matching in Australian Government administration (the guidelines). The guidelines include standards for the use 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.