Queensland Law Society Media Release

QLS Update re: ATO Notice

Members are advised that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) recently served the Society with a notice to provide information to it in accordance with the provisions of s264 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, Section 128 of the Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment Act 1986, Section 77 of the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 and Sections 65 and 353-10 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953.

The notice required the Society to furnish and give the information listed in the following nine (9) categories in respect of each person who holds a current practising certificate issued by the Society pursuant to the Legal Profession Act 2004 and the date that the Society's list was current to:

1. full name: surname, first name and middle name/s;
2. date of birth;
3. date of admission;
4. residential address;
5. residential telephone number (including STD code);
6. business name;
7. business street address;
8. business telephone number (including STD code); and
9. occupation, title, classification or employment status.

In addition, the notice required the provision of ABNs and the listing of those who have been refused a practising certificate, had a practising certificate revoked and/or been struck off the Practitioners Roll in the last five (5) years and required the information in items 1 to 9 above.

The ATO published a notice of this data matching program in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (GN1) of 11 January 2006 (p.64) which advised that the ATO would be electronically matching names and addresses from state and territory Legal Practitioner Registers and lists of the judiciary from the Attorneys General with certain sections of the ATO's data holdings to reveal compliance with lodgement and payment obligations under taxation law.

This data matching program is called the Legal Profession (Including Judiciary) Data Matching Project.

The ATO also developed a document describing this data matching program. Click here to access a copy of this document.

The objectives of this program are to identify any practitioner who has been operating outside the tax system and to ensure all practitioners are meeting their tax obligations. The data matching program protocol developed by the ATO also outlines the proposed action to be taken by the ATO as a result of this project.

No doubt, members will continue to ensure their compliance with the law and the discharge of the obligations in a timely manner.

Rob Davis
President
Queensland Law Society