Commissioner of Taxation
NOTICE OF A DATA MATCHING PROGRAM
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire details of foreign investors that apply to the Foreign Investment Review Board to purchase residential or agricultural land in Australia for the 2010-11 to 2015-16 financial years.
The data items that will be obtained for individuals are:
Full name of the applicants
Address and country of usual residency
Address for service of notices within Australia
Telephone numbers
Email address
Name, address and telephone number of nominated agent within Australia (if any)
Date of birth
Nationality
Passport number
Passport expiry date
Name on passport (if different from above)
Details of any land already owned by the individual purchaser
Details of any other applications submitted for consideration
Postal address of the land
Land area
Title references (lot, section, plan)
Land holding type (freehold, leasehold, licence to occupy)
Term of lease or licence (including options to extend lease/licence)
Details of proposals to:
Purchase of shares in an Australian company that owns urban land
Enter in arrangements to share in profits or income of Australian land
Purchase of shares in an Australian land corporation
Acquisition of units in an Australian urban land trust
It is estimated that records for 25,000 - 30,000 entities will be obtained for each financial year, with most being lodged by individuals.
These records will be electronically matched with certain sections of ATO data holdings to identify non-compliance with registration, lodgment, reporting and payment obligations under taxation laws.
The purpose of this data matching program is to ensure that foreign investors in Australian residential and agricultural land are meeting their taxation obligations. These obligations include registration, lodgment, reporting and payment responsibilities. Its objectives are to:
Obtain intelligence and increase our understanding of risks associated with foreign nationals acquiring residential and agricultural land in Australia
Address risks through compliance activity where evidence of non-compliance is detected with income tax, capital gains tax, rental income and goods and services tax
Develop educational strategies to ensure compliance with taxation obligations in the future
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
by sending an email to SpecialPurposeDataSteward@ato.gov.au with reference to foreign investment review board 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