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 payments to merchants for the periods from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015 from the following financial institutions:

        American Express Australia Limited

        Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited

        Bank of Queensland Limited

        Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited

        BWA Merchant Services Pty Ltd

        Commonwealth Bank of Australia

        Diners Club Australia

        National Australia Bank Limited

        St George Bank

        Tyro Payments Limited

        Westpac Banking Corporation

The data requested will include information that enables the ATO match merchant accounts to a taxpayer, including name, address and contact information as well as information on the number and value of transactions processed for each merchant account. This acquired data will be electronically matched with certain sections of ATO data holdings to identify possible non-compliance with taxation law.

Records relating to approximately 900,000 merchant accounts are expected to be received. The number of affected individuals linked to those accounts is expected to be approximately 90,000.

The purpose of this data matching program is to ensure that merchants are correctly meeting their taxation obligations in relation to their business income. These obligations include registration, lodgment, reporting and payment responsibilities.

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  

        by sending an email to SpecialPurposeDataSteward@ato.gov.au with reference to credit and debit card data matching program

The ATO complies with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s Guidelines on data matching in Australian government administration (2014) which includes standards for data matching to protect the privacy of individuals. A full copy of the ATO’s privacy policy can be accessed at www.ato.gov.au/privacy