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Thursday 12 April 2012

New building industry data matching project

  1. The Tax Office has recently announced a new data matching project to identify and address non compliance with tax obligations within the building industry. The Tax Office considers data matching an effective tool in deterring, detecting and dealing with individuals or businesses participating in the cash economy.
  2. Data collected for the building services industry data matching program includes:
    • Details of individuals and businesses that held trade accounts with purchases between $10,000 and $3 million during the 2009/10 period from a major Australian warehouse chain; and
    • Complaints and/or licensing information for the 2009/10 and 2010/11 financial years from various agencies in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.
  3. The data will be used to identify individuals and businesses that may be running part or all of their business activities off the books.
  4. The Tax Office will also use the information to identify risks and trends of non compliant behaviour within the building industry.
  5. Individuals or businesses identified as failing to meet their obligations will either be contacted by the Tax Office audit department or through a letter asking them to explain any inconsistencies and giving them the opportunity to make a voluntary disclosure.
  6. For more information on building industry data matching, go to http://www.ato.gov.au/content/00307259.htm

Monday 2 April 2012

The Australian Taxation Office have released copies of their Review Questionaire

The Australian Taxation Office have released copies of their Review Questionaire – this is used, as the first step, if the ATO decide to look at your Business Activity Statements.

Taken from the ATO document ‘policies if you are subject to review or audit’ “We presume you are trying to meet your tax obligations unless your actions give us reason to think otherwise. We provide help through our advice, publications and visits".

“However we have a responsibility to the community to ensure everyone complies with the tax laws. For this reason, we sometimes check the accuracy of the information you give us. We do this by selecting some tax returns, activity statements and other documents for checking.”

If we check your tax affairs it does not mean we think you are dishonest. Even if we find a discrepancy we accept that mistakes can be made. If the law allows us to, we take this into account when considering any
penalties".

Review
We (ATO) may conduct a review to check for any errors and help you correct these. We also use reviews to collect information about particular industries and activities. If we find evidence during a review that you have not met your tax obligations, we may decide to conduct and audit. We will tell you if we intend to do this.

We (ATO) expect you to provide complete, accurate and timely responses to requests for information. We expect you to be truthful and honest in your dealings with us.

The Questionaire is available and if you would like us to conduct a pre-emptory review contact us.

If you become involved in a review seek appropriate advice