Emerald Chamber of Commerce Inc

The ATO has issued a stern warning as they crackdown on the sharing economy...

Sophie Elsworth, Personal finance writer - News Corp Australia Network 

THE taxman will target thousands of Uber drivers and Airbnb hosts earning undeclared extra income from the so called ‘sharing economy’ this tax time.

The Australian Taxation Office said it was “concerned” people making income from sites such as Uber, Airbnb and Airtasker were unaware they have to declare these amounts on their tax return.

A stern warning has been issued to offenders: you will get caught if you don’t declare money made from these revenue streams.

The warning comes after the ATO recently collated information from banks to find out who was making money from working as a ride-sharing driver (i.e. Uber driver.)

This prompted them to write to 20,000 drivers in May alerting them of their tax obligations that they must follow.

The ATO’s assistant commissioner Graham Whyte said it would be using sophisticated technology including data matching, data mining and analytics to scrutinise every tax return filed for the 2015/16 financial year.
“If you earn a fee from task sharing for odd jobs or providing a service and it counts as assessable income you just need to include the income in your individual tax return,’’ he said.

 “The law hasn’t changed or has the definition of income, and while the economy is changing with this certainly the rules are the same.”

He said this included earning income from doing things like task sharing, transporting passengers through ride-sourcing or renting out a room or house — they are all forms of assessable income.

But Mr Whyte said this was different to if a person provides goods or an activity through a sharing economy website or platform and it’s done as a hobby or recreational activity — this amount may not be assessable income.

H & R Block’s Director of Tax Communications Mark Chapman said while it was important Australians declared any income made through the sharing economy, on the flipside these people could also declare appropriate tax deductions to coincide with this.

H & R Block director of tax communications Mark Chapman said it was important to seek help if you’re not sure what to claim and declare at tax time.

“The ATO have gone to a lot of these sharing economy services, they’ll know if you’re on Airtasker, or are on Airbnb or you’re an Uber driver,’’ he said.

“Not declaring the income is a disaster when the ATO is data matching and they will typically come after you.”

The ATO will also this tax time be focusing on travel expenses for employees and making sure people return any rental income.

For more information, visit www.ato.gov.au/sharingeconomy

July 18, 2016 12:01am     Victor Cominos
    

sophie.elsworth@news.com.au

Originally published as ATO crackdown on sharing economy

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