Ride sourcing data overview
The data in this program will be used to identify and inform ride sourcing providers (drivers) of their tax obligations as part of information and education campaigns.
The data may also be used as part of the methodologies by which we select taxpayers for compliance activities.
The ATO does not use data from ride sourcing facilitators to initiate automated action or activities.
Previous related programs
The ATO has been conducting the ride sourcing data-matching program since October 2015.
The most recent data-matching protocol for this program was published in March 2020 and covered data from 2015–16 to 2021–22 financial years.
This protocol outlines our intention to continue collecting ride sourcing data in the 2022-23 financial year.
Previous data-matching programs have broadly achieved their goals, including:
- being used in educational campaigns to alert drivers to their tax registration, lodgment and payment obligations
- identifying candidates for review and audit who may be failing to meet their registration or lodgment obligations and assisting them to comply
The Sharing Economy Reporting Regime (SERR) bill was debated and passed by the Senate on 28 November 2022. Reporting under the new format will commence from 1 July 2023 and replace the ride sourcing data-matching protocol. It requires operators of electronic platforms to report identification and payment information to the ATO for data-matching purposes in a mandatory reporting format.
- The SERR bill received royal assent on Monday 12 December 2022.
- The ride sourcing data-matching program is extended to 30 June 2023 for operators of electronic platforms covered by this data-matching protocol.
- From 1 July 2023, ride sourcing data will be reported under the legislative regime.
Data providers
The ATO is the matching agency and sole user of the data obtained during this data-matching program.
The data providers for this data-matching program include ride sourcing operators who facilitate ride sourcing services in Australia.
Ride sourcing services are services provided in an ongoing arrangement where:
- the driver makes a car available for public hire
- a passenger uses, for example, a website or smart phone app provided by a third party to request a ride
- the driver uses the car to transport the passenger for payment with a view to profit.
While not identifying data providers, we adopt a principles-based approach to ensure that our selection of data providers is fair and transparent. Identifying providers that work with the ATO may cause commercial disadvantage given the immaturity of the industry and evolving nature of the market.
The Submission to the Information Commissioner sets out the basis for deviating from the publication conditions of the guidelines and its impacts on individual privacy.
Eligibility as a data provider
Inclusion of a data provider is based on the following principles:
- The data owner or its subsidiary operates a business in Australia that is governed by Australian law.
- The data owner or its subsidiary provides ride sourcing facilitation services for drivers.
- The data owner or its subsidiary provided these facilities in the years in focus.
If the client base of a data provider does not present a risk, or the administrative or financial cost of collecting the data exceeds the benefit the data may provide, the data owner may be excluded from the program.
Our formal information gathering powers
To ensure statutory requirements are met, we obtain data under our formal information gathering powers. These are contained in section 353-10 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953.
This is a coercive power, and data providers are obligated to provide the information requested.
We will use the data for tax and superannuation compliance purposes.
Privacy Act
Data will only be used within the limits prescribed by Australian Privacy Principle 6 (APP6) contained in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act and in particular:
- APP6.2(b) – the use of the information is required or authorised by an Australian law
- APP6.2(e) – the ATO reasonably believes that the use of the information is reasonably necessary for our enforcement-related activities.
Data elements we collect
Data of ride sourcing drivers will be collected from providers. We negotiate with the selected data providers to obtain the data in their systems. The collected data may contain all or a selection of the fields listed below - this depends on what fields the data provider holds.
Client identification details – individuals
Identification details include:
- driver identifier
- Australian business number (ABN)
- driver name
- birth date
- mobile phone number
- email address
- address
Transaction details
Transaction details include:
- bank account details
- aggregated payment details (gross fares, net amount paid to driver, and all other income to which Goods and Services Tax may or may not apply to) of all payments received in the relevant period.
Number of records
We expect to collect data on approximately 200,000 individuals each financial year for this program.
Data quality
We anticipate that the data quality will be of a high standard based on our prior ride sourcing data-matching programs.
The data is sourced from providers' systems and may not be available in a format that can be readily processed by our systems. We apply extra levels of scrutiny and analytics to verify the quality of the data. This includes but is not limited to:
- meeting with data providers to understand their data holdings, including their data use, data currency, formats, compatibility and natural systems
- sampling data to ensure it is fit for purpose before fully engaging providers on task
- verification practices at receipt of data to check against confirming documentation; we then use algorithms and other analytical methods to refine the data.
Data is transformed into a standardised format and validated to ensure that it contains the required data elements prior to loading to our computer systems. We undertake program evaluations to measure effectiveness before determining whether to continue to collect future years of the data or to discontinue the program.
Data retention
We collect data under this program for all financial years from 2016–17 to 2022–23. We collect this data bi-annually in February and August.
Due to the number of data providers, we collect data periodically. We work co-operatively with the data providers and aim to balance our requests against peaks and troughs of demand in a data provider's own business.
We destroy data that is no longer required in accordance with the Archives Act 1983, and the records authorities issued by the National Archives of Australia, for both general and ATO-specific data.
We will retain each financial year’s data for 5 years from receipt of the final instalment of verified data files from the data providers. The data is required for this period for the protection of public revenue.
- Retaining data for 5 years enables us to support our general compliance approach of reviewing an assessment within the standard period of review, which also aligns with the requirement for taxpayers to keep their records.
- The data enhances our ability to identify taxpayers who may not be complying with their tax and superannuation obligations, which is integral to the protecting the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems.
- the data is also used in multiple risk models, including models that establish retrospective profiles over multiple years, aligned with period of review.
While increased data-retention periods may increase the risk to privacy, we have a range of safeguards to appropriately manage and minimise this. ATO systems and controls are designed to ensure the privacy and security of the data we manage.