The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will use bond data to identify rental property owners who fail to lodge tax returns or misreport income and capital gains.
The ATO said it would collect the rental bond details of about 2.2 million people from state and territory regulators to expand its program of matching external data with its own to identify tax evasion.
The objectives of the program are to:
- identify and educate people and businesses who fail to lodge tax returns, correctly report assessable income and allowable deductions from a property, and comply with capital gains tax obligations
- develop and implement strategies including educational or compliance activities, and
- promote voluntary compliance and increase community confidence in the integrity of the tax and super systems.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire rental bond data from state and territory rental bond regulators bi-annually for the 2023–24 through to the 2025–26 financial years.
“The rental bond data-matching program will allow us to identify and address tax risks,” the ATO said.
“Taxpayers with a rental property may fail to lodge a tax return and their rental property schedule on or before the relevant due date”.
The ATO notified the public of the program via the Federal Register of Legislation and by publishing on its website.