What attracts the tax man

The Australian Taxation Office will provide high-net-worth individuals and their advisers with documentation detailing what attracts the attention of the tax man.

The Commissioner for Taxation, Michael D’Ascenzo, said on Friday that the ATO would be producing a booklet setting out what attracts its attention, what the ATO considers to be a risk, and details of its information collection and compliance processes.

He said the ATO was allocating more resources to monitor the tax affairs of around 1,100 high-wealth individuals — people who effectively control $30 million or more in net wealth.

“We are also reviewing the tax affairs of people with salaried income of more than $1 million,” D’Ascenzo said.

“The Tax Office has identified some cases where it appears that income is not being fully reported.”

He said that this mainly involved income from employee share benefits such as options and rights issues, as well as cash bonuses and non-income capital benefits.

The Tax Commissioner went on to say that the ATO would be looking at people whose lifestyles “are out of step with their reported income”.

“We are developing industry benchmarks for some people and industries where there is a high volume of cash transactions,” he said.

“We will work with industry organisations in determining these benchmarks.”