ATO targets investment income

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has identified a significant $123.5 million owed in revenue from investors with respect to dividends and interest, not to mention around $8.6 million owed with respect to rental properties and $50.2 million with respect to the sale of investments.

These were just some of the figures revealed by Australian Taxation Office second commissioner Jennie Granger to a congress of accountants in Sydney last week.

Granger told the congress that rental income and expenses had been a strong focus of the ATO for a few years because of the large number of new entrants and the wide range of common mistakes being made in claims.

She said that so far this year, the ATO had completed over 6,800 reviews and audits of rental property claims and that, as of the middle of May, “we have identified $8.6 million in total revenue owing, with $5.6 million collected”.

Where dividends and interest were concerned, Granger said that investment income and expense was another area where the ATO had been heavily publicising its data-matching capabilities but where it still needed to follow up a significant number of cases.

“By the end of May we had completed over 160,000 reviews and audit cases with a further 20,000 still in progress and a small number yet to be started,” she said.

“These cases have identified $123.5 million in total revenue owing, of which $82.9 million has been collected.”

On the sale of investments she said that by the end of April, the ATO had completed 6,393 audits and reviews for capital gains tax that had resulted in revenue adjustments of $50.2 million.