ATO Data Matching: Anyone you know been busted?

Discussion in 'Investment Strategy' started by Comrade 1984, 2nd May, 2019.

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  1. Comrade 1984

    Comrade 1984 Well-Known Member

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    The ATO has plenty of new weapons in its arsenal to catch out tax dodgers. Recently, I heard that the ATO has obtained 30 years of property transactions from the various state land title registers. There is even talk of them obtaining and sharing similar information from foreign countries.

    My question is: have they been able to use this information successfully?

    Anyone you know been caught up in this? Please share your war stories on this thread.

    An interesting link here: Can the ATO access my banking records? - CapitalQ
     
  2. Tony3008

    Tony3008 Well-Known Member

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    I came here from UK in 2008 and the sale of my UK home went through shortly after. Knowing that I am no forex trader, I settled on the strategy of moving £10,000 a week across, knowing that I'd win some, lose some. A long while after ATO sent me a massive tax bill, advising me that it appeared from my bank records that I had some overseas non-declared earnings - you can see their point, $20K or so each week for several months. Fortunately they didn't need a lot of persuading as to the real situation but it was a salutary warning to me that they know a lot.
     
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  3. bunkai

    bunkai Well-Known Member

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    Clickbait?

    I'm not sure if the OP is suggesting tax evasion is a viable strategy?
     
  4. Comrade 1984

    Comrade 1984 Well-Known Member

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    Just curious as to how exactly they do what they do with the resources they have. They must have spent a lot of money getting their systems up and running. I know a IT guy who worked on a ATO matching system that matched folks who used overseas based credit cards in Australia. In this instance, the cost of getting this particular system up and going exceeded what they actually recovered from dodgers.
     
  5. Marg4000

    Marg4000 Well-Known Member

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    Friend got a letter from the ATO around 5 years ago advising they had failed to declare some bank interest earnings (not a huge amount). Hit with relevant tax plus 25% penalty for non-disclosure. Protested it was an oversight, the 25% was waived with the warning that any future non-disclosure would be penalised more severely.
    Marg
     
  6. qak

    qak Well-Known Member

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    Data matching for interest and dividends has been around for ages. Usually you get a letter saying there's a possible discrepancy, and if you respond to that I've never seen any penalty apply (but it is usually inadvertent or a reporting/matching error) - just the tax has to be paid.

    More recently I think Boral f'ed up their reporting of a payment which they reported to ATO as an unfranked dividend but should have been reported as capital proceeds - this would have affected quite a few people.

    I have also seen the 'funds from overseas' threatened as taxable income a few times; those were always able to be proved as capital/non-taxable as they were actually savings.

    There was one where the person inherited money overseas and finally brought the proceeds into Aust. and those proceeds were questioned and would have been OK, but there was the potential issue of income earned since inheritance which had not been declared - I never saw the outcome, so I don't know if the ATO connected the dots there.
     
  7. Stoffo

    Stoffo Well-Known Member

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    They seem to have the you are guilty until proven innocent :confused:

    Today, centerlink are refusing to deal with my partner because she failed to lodge a tax return last year (she earns under $6k and got a refund ) So clearly they fail to communicate o_O

    I kept getting notices and fines for failing to lodge and pay GST :mad:
    I'd registered in June ahead of purchasing a commercial property in July, never received or lodged for June as there was no activity :p

    The shame of it all is that it is all computer generated and sent without a human checking that the issue warrants action :eek:

    Then the individual has to spend hours on the phone and email with Govco representatives trying to get the mess undone :(
     
  8. Westminster

    Westminster Tigress at Tiger Developments Business Member

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    Ah you still need to lodge even if it's $0 for GST. It's very simple and you can use the phone instruction to declare $0 each quarter until you actually need to lodge an amount.
     
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  9. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    It takes about 1 minute to lodge a no activity bas online.
     
  10. SatayKing

    SatayKing Well-Known Member

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    I was "busted" many years ago involving two dividends the ATO claimed I didn't declare in my personal return.

    The first was an easy fix when I explained I had inadvertently recorded my personal tax file number against a share I held at the time in the Super Fund. A big no, no and created a degree of obvious confusion.

    The second related to rounding of dividends. The dividend I received included a few cents which was over $0.50. Under the arrangements applicable at the time I reported only the whole dollar amount. No rounding up or down to the nearest dollar. The ATO advised the Company reported I had received a dividend rounded up to the nearest dollar. A letter to the ATO explaining the reason for the inconsistency meant no further action by the Tax Office.

    The strange thing in the response was the ATO suggested I contact the Company concerned to clarify the situation. Me being me wrote back and told them the ATO administer the rules so it can contact the Company concerned.

    Last I heard of it.
     
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