Book Now The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has issued a powerful government gazette notice, which sets down a data matching program that will affect visa holders, sponsors and migration agents.
The data matching program will basically enable the ATO and Immigration to check out tax compliance and payments, and it will allow Immigration to sanction employers and migration agents where they have breached their tax or payment obligations, and cancel visas where visa holders have breached work or other conditions revealed by the data matching.
This scheme will also allow both departments and the department of social security by default, to ascertain whether any fraudulent social security payments are being claimed, such as single parent payments e.g., where a partner visa has been lodged or granted.
Clearly this may have dire consequences for anyone out there who hasn't played by the rules, and our advice to you would be to try and get your house in order as soon as possible if you have committed any tax or payment breaches.
If you are concerned and panicking about the new measures or just don't know where to turn, please give our office a call and we'll assess your situation with you confidentially. If necessary, we're able to refer you to tax expert and/or bookeeper. Contact us on +61 3 95735200 if you'd like to make a consultation to discuss your situation or make an online booking here.
The 10 most important things you should know about the ATO data matching program are:-
| I |
A virtually infinite amount of information will be collected from the Department of Immigration and Border protection for the 2013-14,2014-15, 2015-16 & 2016-17 financial years from visa holders, sponsors and migration agents including:
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| II |
Approximately 1,000,000 individuals will have their data matched with the data the ATO has on record. |
| III |
Data matching will reveal non-compliance with tax rules/payment obligations, reporting and illegal earnings. |
| IV |
Data matching will lead to ABN cancellations where business owners have demonstrated noncompliance with the tax rules, whether business or employee related. |
| V |
The ATO will also be able to detect multiple tax fraud practices. |
| VI |
Data matching will also expose superannuation non-payment and compliance by employers. |
| VII |
Data matching will also reveal unlawful employment of visa holders with no work rights, or limited work rights (such as student visa holders) where employers claim tax benefits associated with paying remuneration or where visa holders pay or claim tax. |
| VIII |
Employers who fail to pay their 457 workers their prescribed wages will also be caught by the ATO data matching. |
| IX |
Similarly, 457 employees who do not declare their wages to the ATO will be caught in breach of their visa conditions which may result in visa cancellation. |
| X |
Migration agents will be investigated for amongst other things, the correlation between visas lodged and income declared. |
If you'd like to read the notice yourself, you'll find it by clicking on the link below.
