The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has obtained data from state and territory motor vehicle registering bodies and will match against taxpayer records. This is to identify those participating in the cash economy by not declaring income to deliberately avoid their tax obligations.

Data will be obtained for all motor vehicles where the transfer and/or market value is $10,000 or greater from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010.

How the ATO will use the data

Motor vehicle data is used to improve compliance with tax obligations of particular groups of taxpayers by allowing us to:

  • identify taxpayers whose expenditure is in excess of their reported income
  • identify businesses that sell vehicles and do not report or under report those sales
  • obtain intelligence about this group and identify risks and trends of non-compliance
  • develop and implement strategies to improve voluntary compliance that may include educational or audit activities as appropriate.
  • help in addressing potential non-compliance in the following areas

- income tax
- super
- GST
- fringe benefits tax.

Those identified at risk of potentially skimming some or all of their cash takings, running part of their business off the books or in other ways not reporting all their income should contact us to make a voluntary disclosure of any under reported amounts.

Where appropriate, the data obtained will be used to support default assessments of a business’s tax liabilities.

Data matching projects help protect honest taxpayers, by deterring, detecting and dealing with those who have not complied.

How the ATO collects data

The ATO has obtained data from the following state and territory motor vehicle registering bodies:

New South Wales: Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW

Queensland: Queensland Transport

Victoria: Vic Roads

Tasmania: Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources

South Australia: Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure (Transport SA)

Western Australia: Department for Planning and Infrastructure

Northern Territory: Northern Territory Department of Planning and Infrastructure (Transport Division)

Australian Capital Territory: ACT Road Transport Authority, Road User Services, Urban Services

Source:  Australian Taxation Office

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