ATO Data-Matching for Property Owners

Are you a landlord renting out a property or offering short-term accommodation services through online platforms?

If so, you should be aware that the ATO has now launched two new data matching programs that will affect property owners such as yourself.

What is Data Matching, and how does it affect you?

Rental Bond Data

The ATO will acquire data under notice from rental bond authorities, for the period 20 September 1985 to 30 June 2020 for:

Individuals that rent out their properties, and
Individuals who have sold their property

The collected information is then electronically matched against ATO data holdings to assess whether the reported rental income is correct, and to ensure that any tax liabilities arising from a CGT event was calculated and paid correctly.

Online Accommodation Platforms

This is a system that allows the public to book and pay for short-term accommodations.

The ATO acquires data under notice to identify individuals providing accommodations using online platforms for the 2016-2017 to 2019-2020 financial years, as well as details of payments made to accommodation providers by the online platforms.

The data collected is then matched against ATO data holdings to check whether the individuals are correctly reporting their income in their tax returns.

So what does this mean for you?

If you’re engaging in these services as a property owner, you will need to ensure you are lodging the correct income in your tax returns.