OZschwitz: Extortionist ATO Crackdown on innocent online traders

The Australian Tax Office will use data from eBay and The Trading Post to identify businesses that are not fully reporting their income from online sales.

The data-matching program will focus on individuals and businesses who have sold more than $20,000 in goods and services on the websites in any of the past three financial years.

The operation is expected to look at the records of up to 30,000 individuals.

Tax commissioner Michael D'Ascenzo said anyone running a business through online selling sites, and anyone with an existing business making additional sales through the sites needed to include the income in their activity statement or tax return. The Tax Office is encouraging anyone who may have understated their taxable income in the past three years to make a voluntary disclosure.

People who make a voluntary disclosure are entitled to an 80 per cent reduction in penalties that would otherwise apply.

The data-matching program is part of the Tax Office's broader efforts to crack down on people using cash transactions to hide their income. The program matches information in tax returns with more than 500 million items of third-party data.

LNK

OZschwitz: Extortionist ATO Crackdown on innocent online traders

OZschwitz: Extortionist ATO Crackdown on innocent online traders

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