ATO cracks down on wealthy boat owners, more data-matching tipped

The taxman is cracking down on boat owners, with the ATO undergoing a new data-matching campaign to identify more than 110,000 people who own vessels worth more than $25,000.

Insurers Suncorp, GIO, Vera Insurance, Club Marine, QBE and Wesfarmers – which collectively insure about 330,000 under pleasurecraft policies – have been called on for data.

Overall, the ATO has gathered 110,000 records of individuals who own boats.

The information includes registration numbers, the owner’s date of birth, the total sum insured, the purchase price of the boat itself and even the construction type of the hull.

The data-matching enquiry is a regular part of the ATO’s compliance program, which aims to identify individuals with high net worth greater than $30 million and others who are worth between $5 million and $30 million.

“This information, when combined with additional wealth indicators, will assist in identifying taxpayers whose net wealth is such that their affairs should be reviewed under the highly wealthy individuals or wealthy Australians programs.”

The latest campaign comes after a pilot program was launched in October 2010, using data provided by one insurer. It was able to provide a 98% match rate, with 77% of those matched with a high level of confidence.

CPA Australia general manager of policy and research Paul Drum says the ATO will continue to do more of these data-matching campaigns as information technology becomes easier to use.

“It’s very fertile ground. With the advent of improvements in IT, it’s never been better to do campaigns like this.”

“Back in the day a lot of the records used to be on old microfiche. Now that everything is digital, it’s incredibly easy to match everything and see if you get any trouble.”

Drum says the ATO will be looking for wealthy individuals whose purchases don’t line up with incomes.

“If you’ve bought an expensive boat but are taking unemployment benefits, or you’re running a business that has a mixture of cash and other types of receipts, the first question is, where did you get the funds for this?

The campaign comes as the Government provided the ATO with an extra $58 million for data matching systems, saying the compliance program has been a successful venture.