WHAT WAS CLAIMED
BlackRock owns the Australian Taxation Office.
OUR VERDICT
False. BlackRock does not own the ATO.
AAP FACTCHECK - The Australian Taxation Office is not owned by a major US investment firm, despite claims online.
The claims stem from an incident where someone registered a business name and falsely linked it to the ATO before it was cancelled.
The false claim appears in a Facebook post featuring a screenshot of text which says "we prefer" to help people pay tax "voluntarily".
The post also shows a screenshot of a business record that appears to link the ATO with BlackRock and other big companies via a joint venture called "Ultimate Holding for all Company".
"From the ATO'S own website, read the first 2 lines, Voluntary!!" the post caption reads.
"Screenshot 2 from ASIC. Blackrock OWNS the ATO. So who are you really paying taxes too???"
However, taxes are not voluntary, and the ATO is not owned by BlackRock.
AAP FactCheck has previously debunked claims that paying tax is voluntary.
The text in the screenshot matches the ATO's 2007 Taxpayers' Charter (Page 17), but it does not appear in the ATO's current charter.
While the ATO website does state that the "vast majority of tax due is paid voluntarily," it doesn't mean paying tax is optional.
It means most Australians pay their tax without needing to be chased or forced to do so, the ATO previously told AAP FactCheck.
The other screenshot in the post also doesn't show that BlackRock owns the ATO.
Instead, it shows a fake business name registration that was quickly cancelled after authorities discovered it contained false or misleading information.
The image shows a listing on the Australian Business Record (ABR) website for the ATO.
The listing included a company called 'Ultimate Holding for all Company' as a joint venture between the ATO, BlackRock, Commonwealth Bank, Merrill Lynch and nine other major companies.
However, the applicant had linked the business name to the ATO without consent, so the registration was suspended before being cancelled.
The saga is explained in the ATO's response to Senator Malcolm Roberts during a 2023 Budget Estimates committee hearing.
On December 3, 2022, someone applied to register the business name 'Ultimate Holding for all Company' declaring it to be a joint venture between the ATO, BlackRock and other companies.
"The ATO was listed as one of the entities in the application, but it did not consent to this," the ATO said.
An automated system approved the registration, and the fake records appeared on ASIC and ABR websites.
"The information published on ASIC Connect Search was not displayed due to ASIC or ABRS error. Rather, it reflected information supplied by the person making the application," the ATO added.
Three days later, on December 6, ASIC discovered the problem and suspended the registration before cancelling it.
"The ABR has also been updated to reflect the cancellation of this registration," the ATO response said.
The ASIC records also show the registration for Ultimate Holding for all Company was cancelled.
The ATO explained that government agencies don't routinely audit the business register to detect "where false or misleading information has been provided as part of an application for a Business Name".
"However, where the agencies become aware of matters that would have caused the original application to be refused, steps are taken to cancel the registration of the Business Name," the ATO response said.
The ASIC and the ABR both reviewed their processes following the case, the ATO added.
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