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ATO Updates

The ATO has extended its data matching program, this time focusing on share data. The ATO will continue to receive share data from ASIC, including details of the price, quantity and time of individual trades dating back to 2014, with more than 500 million records obtained.

The ATO will use the information to identify taxpayers who have not properly reported the sale or transfer of shares as income or capital gains in their income tax returns. It seems share transactions are high on the ATO's priority list, given more than 5 million Australian adults (almost one-third) now own shares.

The ATO has also finalised a trial relating to sending overdue taxpayer lodgment obligations to external collection agencies. As a result, it may now refer taxpayers to an external collection agency to secure tax return lodgment.

The ATO has stated that it will only refer a taxpayer to an external collection agency where the taxpayer takes no action in response to its initial correspondence letters.