Returns the ATO's annual Tax Gap publication: estimates of the difference between the tax theoretically payable under current law and the tax actually collected, across each tax type and taxpayer population (individuals not in business, small business, large corporate, GST, excise, fuel tax credits, PRRT, superannuation guarantee).
Value
An ato_tbl. Tax-gap estimates are in nominal AUD
millions of the reporting year and typically accompanied by
a percentage-gap column.
Details
The Tax Gap series is used by Treasury (every MYEFO), the Parliamentary Budget Office, and academic researchers as the headline measure of revenue integrity.
References
Australian Taxation Office (annual). Australian tax gaps – overview. Methodology notes on bottom-up, top-down, and random-inquiry approaches to the tax-gap estimation.
HMRC (annual). Measuring tax gaps. Sister methodology paper applied by HM Revenue and Customs in the UK; the ATO series was partly inspired by this literature.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2017). Shining Light on the Shadow Economy: Opportunities and Threats. Paris. Synthesises tax-gap measurement practice across OECD member countries.
See also
Other discovery:
ato_catalog(),
ato_charities(),
ato_cite(),
ato_download(),
ato_excise(),
ato_fbt(),
ato_help(),
ato_irpd(),
ato_payg(),
ato_rdti(),
ato_sme_benchmarks(),
ato_top_taxpayers(),
ato_vttc()
Examples
# \donttest{
op <- options(ato.cache_dir = tempdir())
try({
gaps <- ato_tax_gaps()
head(gaps)
})
#> Waiting 2s for throttling delay ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
#> Waiting 2s for throttling delay ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
#> ℹ Downloading <https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/f627f458-7d5a-450d-9f62-45d6983…
#> ✔ Downloading <https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/f627f458-7d5a-450d-9f62-45d6983…
#>
#> # ato_tbl: ATO Tax Gaps (sheet: 1)
#> # Source: https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/f627f458-7d5a-450d-9f62-45d6983961da/resource/59a43b92-26d9-451e-822a-ab437f5a4742/download/australian-tax-gaps-2024-publication.xlsx
#> # Licence: CC BY 2.5 AU
#> # Retrieved: 2026-04-28 19:14 UTC
#> # SHA-256: 35a8fec971481e27...
#> # Rows: 6 Cols: 1
#>
#> australian_tax_gapsthe_tax_gap_is_an_estimate_of_the_difference_between_the_amount_the_ato_collects_and_what_we_would_have_collected_if_every_taxpayer_was_fully_compliant_with_tax_law_this_file_includes_current_and_historical_tax_gap_estimates_publis ...
#> 1 \r\nMore information
#> 2 Australian Taxation Office
#> 3 Australian tax gaps - overview
#> 4 Tax gap research program
#> 5 Principles and approaches to measuring gaps
#> 6 For feedback or inquiries please email us at: Taxgap@ato.gov.au
options(op)
# }