ATO ramps up its focus on rental properties and hosts on platforms such as Airbnb

The Australian Taxation Office is ramping up its enforcement activities and will undertake 4,500 audits of taxpayers it considers are "high risk" because they overclaim or don't declare income relating to rental properties. Key points: The ATO will audit 4,500 "high-risk"' taxpayers relating to their 2017-2018 returns for rental properties The agency is also improving its data matching and in future will use property management reports from real estate agents Work-related expense deductions are also in the firing line, but average claims are reducing ATO assistant commissioner Adam Kendrick said it would audit 2017-2018 financial year tax returns relating to rental investments that its data analytics systems had flagged as potentially problematic. ATO wants better sense of revenue at risk Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan told the Tax Institute conference in Hobart last week that with more two million taxpayers claiming $47.4 billion in rental deductions, against $44.1 billion in reported income, "you can get a sense of the potential revenue at risk". Previous audits yield $12 million The ATO had previously undertaken limited audits of rental deductions claimed for the 2016-2017 tax year, which Mr Kendrick said uncovered a handful of agents that had deliberately had falsified claims or made claims for properties that do not exist. Mr Jordan told the Tax Institute last week that the ATO's efforts in targeting taxpayers incorrectly reporting or overclaiming work-related expense deductions were "beginning to pay off".