It is important to note that while the ATO is obtaining data from various ride sourcing facilitators, none of the facilitators are named. It says identification of the facilitators/providers working with the ATO has the potential to cause commercial disadvantage given the immaturity of the industry and the evolving nature of the market. As such, the ATO says it is adopting a principles-based approach to ensure fairness and transparency using the following criteria:
- data owner or its subsidiary operates a business in Australia that is governed by Australian law;
- data owner or its subsidiary provides ride sourcing facilitation services for drivers;
- data owner or its subsidiary provided these facilities in the years in focus;
- where the client base of a data owner or its subsidiary does not present an omitted income risk or the administrative or financial cost of collecting the data exceeds the benefit the data may provide, the data owner or its subsidiary may be excluded from the program.
According to the ATO, new and existing ride sourcing facilitators will be reviewed periodically against the eligibility criteria, and if required, will be included in the data matching program. In addition, any data collected will not be used to initiate automated action or activities.