Commissioner of Taxation
NOTICE OF A DATA MATCHING PROGRAM
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will request and collect data relating to credit and debit card sales of entities for the periods from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2014 from the following financial institutions:
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia
- St George Bank
- Westpac Banking Corporation
- Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited
- National Australia Bank Limited
- Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited
- Bank of Queensland Limited
- BWA Merchant Services Pty Ltd
- American Express Australia Ltd
- Diners Club Australia
This acquired data will be electronically matched with certain sections of ATO data holdings to identify non compliance with registration, reporting, lodgment and payment obligations under taxation law. It is expected that records relating to approximately 900,000 merchants will be matched.
This program is called the Credit and Debit Card Data Matching Program and it will enable the ATO to:
- Better understand and address the compliance behaviour of taxpayers through the electronic bulk data matching to identify potential ATO administrative action; and
- To be more strategic in its approach to ATO business activities, with the aim of encouraging taxpayers to voluntarily comply with their taxation obligations.
A document describing this program has been prepared and lodged with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. A copy of this document is available by emailing SpecialPurposeDataSteward@ato.gov.au with reference to the credit and debit card data matching program.
The ATO complies with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s Guidelines, The use of Data Matching in Commonwealth Administration, which includes standards for data matching to protect the privacy of individuals.