Attention Online Sales Businesses.
The tax office is now targeting online sales, including sellers using eBay and The Trading Post.
The ATO is launching a on line data matching program that will target people and business owners who have sold more than $20,000 in goods or services in any of the last three financial years
It is clearly indicated that all on line sales need to be included in your activity statements (BAS) and/or tax returns.
The new data matching system will find businesses that have not declared or are under declaring revenue that are made using the online sales channel.
If this news is a great concerning to you and your business, the ATO is encouraging businesses who have under-reported online revenue in the past three years to make a voluntary disclosure.
Tax Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said “If you do so you will be treated fairly and benefit from significantly lower penalties. You can make a voluntary disclosure on this or any other matter by writing to the ATO – more details are available on the ATO website,”
The Data matching program collects information from different sources, the information is then brought together and compiled, identifying individuals and businesses that are on deliberating avoiding their tax obligations.
All records will be matched against different identifiers such as tax file numbers, ABN’s, addresses and date of births which will improve the integrity of the data matching program.
TheData matching system matches information contained in tax returns with more than 500 million pieces of third party data. Taxpayers are entitled to an 80 per cent reduction in penalties if they make a voluntary disclosure, rather than being caught out by the ATO.
The information above is from ABC NEWS:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/29/2968039.htm?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
ATO Logo from ATO
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