2008-09 Tax Office audit and review focus
Each year at this time, the Commissioner of Taxation announces key areas the Tax Office will focus on as part of its annual audit regime.
Many of the focus areas stay the same from year to year, although the ATO will add areas to its radar where it believes there is system abuse.
For the 2008/2009 compliance season, the Commissioner included the following areas of interest:
- Capital gains from the sale of property, shares and other assets
- Compliance activities of senior executives and directors, including those executives who appear to have under-reported income, with a focus on shares and options received as remuneration
- Monitor work-related expense claims, particularly out-of-pattern claims for self-education, car and travel expenses
- Focus on landlords who incorrectly claim deductions for interest or those whose claims for capital works exceed the construction expenditure
- Expand data matching to include information on asset transactions from state and territory title and revenue offices, security exchanges and share registries and reports from managed funds
- Review cases of individuals who made a gain from disposing of assets to invest in superannuation
- Encourage people to voluntarily disclose their involvement in dodgy schemes to take advantage of reduced penalties for full disclosure
- Occupations to receive greater attention: nurses, medical practitioners and chefs
- Contact 50,000 taxpayers who may be vulnerable to participating in the cash economy, reminding them of tax obligations, while undertaking 5,000 cash-economy reviews and audits, including sending letters, phoning people and conducting field visits
- Increase the number of reviews and audits of Self Managed Superannuation Funds
Tags: ATO