Luxury car owners are set to be hit by the ATO, just a week after the Federal Government increased the tax on vehicles with a sales price over $57,123.

This time the ATO is trying to snare car owners who have purchased a car valued over $57,009 between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2007.

Under the guise of the tax organistion’s conspicuous wealth programme, they are targeting those with suspiciously low levels of income but have expensive vehicles. The ATO will gather registration information from all the territories and states and cross-reference it with its own information system to try and catch out those who have suspiciously low incomes, but expensive cars.

Talking to the Financial Review, Porsche Cars Australia spokesman Paul Ellis said, “It [is] an unfair stereotyping of people who buy Porsche motor cars. It’s insinuating that people who purchase expensive luxury cars are fraudulent, or maybe under suspicion of fraud, and that is ethically and morally incorrect.”

However, the ATO is unrepentant stating that it is only after those who are declaring low incomes, but have accumulated wealth out of proportion to their income. They back up their assertion with figures from a similar 2006 programme that showed 25% of tax payers they targeted had missed filing a tax return between 1997 and 2006.