Gazette notice: Commissioner of Taxation – Notice of a motor vehicle registries data-matching program 4 August 2026

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire motor vehicle registries data from state and territory motor vehicle registry authorities for 2025–26 through to 2029–30.

The data items include:

• identification details (names; addresses; phone numbers; emails; date of birth for individuals; Australian business number; Australian company number for purchasers, sellers, licensed dealer, fleet manager, leasing company (or representative of any of these) and the registering person for an unincorporated body).
• transaction details (date and type of transaction; sale price of the vehicle; market value of the vehicle; vehicle's garage address; intended vehicle use; vehicle make and model; vehicle body type; engine type; year of manufacture; engine capacity or number of cylinders; tare weight; gross weight; vehicle identification number; registration number; transaction receipt number; state stamp duty exemption and reason; dealer's licence number).

We estimate that records relating to approximately 2.5 million individuals will be obtained each financial year.

For this data-matching program, we will match motor vehicle registries data against our internal data holdings.

The data collected under this program will be used for identifying relevant cases for administrative action, building a tax compliance risk profile of taxpayers buying, selling or acquiring motor vehicles and providing us with information for:

• delivering products and tailored education to support taxpayers in managing their tax and superannuation obligations
• identifying taxpayers at risk of not complying with their tax or superannuation obligations for referral to relevant areas for appropriate treatment.

The objectives of this program are to:

• help taxpayers to meet their tax and superannuation obligations, including through education
• identify taxpayers who may not be meeting their registration, lodgment, reporting and payment obligations and assist them to comply
• establish the risks and trends of taxpayers that buy and sell motor vehicles
• identify taxpayers that have purchased vehicles with values that don't match their reported financial position
• investigate taxpayers of interest, such as sellers, licensed dealers, fleet managers, leasing companies or representatives of these taxpayers to see whether interposed proxy ownership is being used to conceal the true accumulation of wealth, posing a risk to public revenue
• detect and apply compliance actions to those taxpayers who may not have met their obligations across relevant taxes, including GST, fringe benefits tax, luxury car tax, fuel tax credits and income tax
• promote voluntary compliance and strengthen community confidence in the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems by publicising the running of this data-matching program.

A document describing this program is available at ato.gov.au/dmprotocols.

This program follows the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s Guidelines on data matching in Australian Government administration (2014) (the guidelines). The guidelines include standards for the use of data matching as an administrative tool in a way that:

• complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act)
• is consistent with good privacy practice.

A full copy of the ATO’s privacy policy can be accessed at ato.gov.au/privacy.