CANBERRA: EBay and other online market operators will be asked to hand over the records of thousands of Australian sellers to the Australian Taxation Office to check all appropriate taxes are being paid.Up to 40,000 account records linked to between 15,000 and 20,000 individuals and companies who sold goods or services totalling $10,000 or more in the year to June 30, 2014, will be subject to the latest online audit.
The ATO hopes matching the sales data with its own records will identify those selling goods and services online without paying taxes.
Those with undeclared income or incorrect payment and reporting for GST will be a key focus.“The ATO will match the data provided by online selling sites against ATO records to identify businesses that may not be meeting their registration, reporting, lodgement and/or payment obligations,” the ATO said.
“The purpose of the online selling data-matching program is to protect businesses from unfair competition by identifying taxpayers who are not complying with their taxation obligations.”Sales data will be sought from Australian sites that provide an online market place for businesses and individuals to buy and sell goods and services.
This will include eBay Australia & New Zealand Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of eBay International AG which owns and operates www.ebay.com.au.The 2014 online selling data-matching program will also enable the ATO to gather intelligence to better direct compliance and educational strategies to encourage future tax compliance of online sellers.
The data collected will include sellers’ account names and identification, their names or business names, addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, email addresses, registration dates, number of annual and monthly sales transactions and the value of annual and monthly sales transactions. More than 6000 individuals and businesses have been contacted in earlier programs resulting in total back taxes and penalties of almost $4 million being paid.
