Commissioner of Taxation - Notice of a data matching program
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire details of individuals in receipt of Paid parental leave payments and Medicare entitlement statements from the Department of Human Services (Centrelink and Medicare) for the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years.
The data items that will be obtained are:
■ Paid parental leave scheme
– Identifying particulars of the employer (Australian business number, legal and trading names, addresses)
– Detail of payments made by the employer to the recipient (employee) (start and end dates, amounts paid)
– Identifying particulars of the recipient (employee) of paid parental leave (name address, date of birth, customer reference number)
– Detail of payments made by DHS to the employer, for payments made by the employer to the recipient (employee) (start and end date, amounts paid)
■ Medicare entitlement statements
– Identifying particulars of the recipient of the statement (name, address, date of birth)
– Detail of the periods the person was not entitled to Medicare benefits (start and end dates, current status)
It is estimated that records for more than 500,000 individuals will be obtained for each financial year.
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:
■ Ensure that taxpayers are correctly claiming entitlement to the invalid and invalid carer tax offset and exemption from payment of the Medicare levy and Medicare levy surcharge
■ Work with taxpayers and intermediaries to obtain a better understanding of the identified risks and trends of non-compliance
■ Develop education strategies so that compliance is better understood and easier in the future
■ Expedite the processing of income tax returns and payment of refunds to taxpayers who are genuinely entitled to claim these offsets and exemptions
■ Undertake verification activities where the information obtained indicates a taxpayer may not be entitled to claim the offset or exemption, either partly or in its entirety
■ Ensure compliance with registration, lodgement, 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
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 |