The Australian Inland Revenue Service (ATO) has always been a "ploy" to investigate tax evasion, and an Australian family has been targeted for its status on Facebook.
The Australian family, whose husband is in business, reported an annual income of A $80,000 to the IRS and A $60,000 to his wife.
According to the income criteria of the Australian Inland Revenue Department, the two people belong to the second lowest income group and the lowest income group respectively. But the IRS, through a series of data matches, found that the couple`s three children were studying in private schools and that the three children had a combined tuition fee of A $75,000 a year. In addition, immigration records showed the family had travelled overseas in business class, and the family shared photos of vacations at Canada`s Whistler ski resort on Facebook.
This series of evidence points to the Australian family`s false actual income, thus attracting the attention of the Australian Revenue Service. The actual tax revenue received from individual taxpayers in 2015-16 was A $187.1 billion, but the revenue receivable was far from that, with a difference of billions of Australian dollars, according to data. The Australian Inland Revenue Department (IRS) has made great efforts to combat tax evasion by collecting taxes due.
The IRS said it was only part of the crackdown on tax evasion. In addition to the fact that banks, employers, insurance companies and government agencies are required to provide taxpayers` information to the IRS, the Australian IRS has revealed that they collect information through vehicle registration records, stocks, online sales platform transactions, and so on. Of course, the IRS will consider whether children`s private school fees, immigration records, and status and photos on social media platforms match taxpayers` reported income.
The Australian Inland Revenue Commissioner, Chris Jordan, said that if the information examined by the IRS was consistent with the income reported by the taxpayer, it would not be investigated in depth; only those taxpayers whose reported income was not in line with the actual income would be looked into.
According to an annual report released this month by the Australian Inland Revenue Service, the Australian Revenue Service recovered a total of A $9.6 billion in tax evasion last year, of which 2/3 were income taxes, in a series of tax checks. Last year, the IRS asked 60 private schools to provide a source of tuition payments, in which it found 100 families with unreported overseas income.
Last year, the Australian government introduced the Anti-multinational avoidance Act (multinational anti-avoidance), which came into effect on January 1. Despite Australia`s tight tax management, multinationals can more or less divert their revenues from Australia through offshore companies, thereby reducing taxes. Under the new law, multinationals will be fined double their taxes and interest if they are found to be evading taxes. It can be seen that the Australian Government and the IRS are determined to crack down on tax avoidance.
With the popularity of social media platforms, sharing "everyday life" on these platforms has long become the daily life of many people. But perhaps it is the state of the circle of friends that could be targeted by taxpayers, or corporate tax bureaus. Because many people`s moments, Facebook`s information is public, so even the IRS investigation is not a breach of privacy law.
One can`t help but think of a sentence: you can remain silent, but every moment of your circle of friends will be evidence in court.
