News & Updates

Data-matching program for rental properties

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Recently, the Australian Taxation Office announced that they are undertaking a data-matching program with property management software providers. These are the rental statements that you receive on a regular basis from your real estate agent for your rental property.

The data-matching program is going back to the 2018–19 financial year and will continue through to the 2025–26 financial year.

The main focus of this data-matching program is to:

  • identify and educate individuals and businesses who may not be lodging their income tax returns, not correctly reporting assessable income from a rental property, not correctly reporting associated rental deductions and not complying with capital gains tax obligations for properties used to derive rental income
  • gain insights to help develop and implement strategies, which may include educational or compliance activities for individuals and businesses who lease or let real property, and
  • promote voluntary compliance and increase community confidence in the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems.

In particular, look out for:

  • any year that you forgot to include rental income if you held more than one property
  • situations where the rental income declared in tax returns are not in the same proportion as the ownership documents, and
  • you may have claimed an outright deduction for an asset that may have needed to be claimed over multiple years.

If you have any questions about this data-matching program or would like to review your arrangements, please contact our office.