Australia: ATO is cracking down on cash economy

“We are taking a closer look at the cafe, restaurant, catering and takeaway industry because about 40,000 businesses in the industry [nationwide] lodge late,” ATO senior assistant commissioner Michael Hardy.

“The ATO has been able to use the data from contractor reporting in the building industry to identify those businesses in the building trades that don’t have any involvement in sub-contracting, and so are mostly operating in the business-to-consumer end of the market,” Mr Hardy said. “Omitted income is more prevalent in the business-to-consumer end of the market so this information lets us sub-divide the market more carefully.”

The tax authority has been tracking the credit card transactions of almost 1 million businesses. The 275,000 businesses that were targeted were flagged as part of the Tax Office’s wider data-matching program.

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