Commissioner of Taxation - Notice of a data matching program
The Higher Education Support Act 2003 and the Trade Support Loans Act 2014 were amended in November 2015 to require payment of Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) and Trade Support Loans (TSL) by debtors who have left Australia to reside/work overseas.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire overseas movement data from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) for individuals with an existing HELP or TSL debt.
The data matching program will be conducted for the 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 financial years to identify the HELP or TSL debtors impacted by the law change.
The data items that will be obtained are:
■ Identifying particulars for the HELP or TSL debtor population (name, date of birth, ATO/DIBP identifiers)
■ DIBP overseas movement details (Passport number, passport country of issue, offshore status, departure and return dates) held on DIBP system
It is estimated that records for more than 2.6 million 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 and superannuation laws.
The objectives of this data matching program are to:
■ ensure participants with a HELP and TSL debt impacted by the law changes are receiving guidance materials, self-help information and support
■ ensure participants with a HELP and TSL debt impacted by the law changes are aware of their registration, lodgment and payment obligations
■ use insight gained to further develop educational strategies intended to promote voluntary compliance and strengthen community confidence in the integrity of the tax system
■ provide possible opportunities to satisfy the ATO’s wider compliance activities of 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