Program overview
Government entities pay billions of dollars to third party providers to deliver services for many of the programs they administer. The government entities using these service providers have accountability for ensuring the proper use of public resources. The service providers who receive these payments are responsible for meeting their tax, super and registry obligations.
The ATO is responsible for collecting revenue and maintaining community confidence in the integrity of the tax, superannuation, and registry systems. Fraudulent and non-compliant behaviour by service providers create government entity expenditure and tax revenue risk, a risk to community confidence and is a risk to a level playing field.
The government payments program data-matching program will enable the ATO to:
- identify and address non-compliance with tax and super obligations by service providers receiving government payments
- work more effectively with government entities to deliver greater system integrity and risk treatment strategies across a range of programs
- maximise the value of ATO data to government entities (in accordance with the current data sharing legislative framework).
Program objectives
Our data-matching programs help us fulfil our responsibility to protect public revenue and maintain community confidence in the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems.
The objectives of the government payments program data-matching program are to:
- obtain reliable data about the service providers receiving government payments to identify and assess risks and trends of tax non-compliance within the service provider population
- enable the ATO to work with service providers and government entities to get a better understanding of the environment and identify opportunities to improve system integrity
- identify and educate service providers that may be operating outside of the tax system and failing to meet their registration, lodgment, reporting or payment obligations and assist them to comply
- promote voluntary compliance and strengthen community confidence in the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems
- gain insights to shape future treatment strategies, which may include educational or compliance activities
- support government entities in their understanding of any identified tax and super risks associated with the specific programs being examined.
Why we look at government payments data
The government payments program data-matching program will allow us to identify and address the following tax and super risks:
- registration obligations – check correct registration for
- Australian business number (ABN)
- tax file number (TFN)
- goods and services tax (GST)
- pay as you go (PAYG) withholding
- lodgment obligations – check for outstanding tax returns, business activity statements and fringe benefits tax returns
- correct reporting – compare government entity payment to service provider data against the taxpayer income records to assess if providers are reporting correctly
- payment – check outstanding debt and assess a service provider's payment history and ability to pay tax and super obligations as they fall due.
The data-matching program will also build our understanding of the risk landscape. It will allow us to identify specific indicators in the service provider population, including serious organised crime, illegal phoenixing behaviour and unexplained wealth.
For more information see Government Payments Program.