Luxury car owners, already reeling

from a federal budget which will lift

the rate of tax they pay on buying

their cars by a third, are about to be

hit by something worse special

attention from the tax man.

The Australian Taxation Office

gave notice yesterday in the Commonwealth

Gazette that it would

ask each state and territory motor

registration office to supply it with

the names, addresses, phone

numbers and dates of birth of each

Australian who has bought or sold a

luxury car between July 2005 and

July 2007.

The Tax Office defines a luxury

car as any vehicle bought or sold for

more than $57,000 the luxury car

tax threshold.

It is a definition at odds with that

used by Shadow Treasurer Malcolm

Turnbull, who told the National

Press Club yesterday that ''the vast

bulk of the cars sold in that $57,000

and more category are not regarded

as particularly luxurious''.

The tax increase on cars above

that price level ''should be called a

Tarago tax,'' he said. ''It is not a tax

on people of high incomes.''

But the Tax Office said yesterday

its luxury car program would identify

''those earning high incomes''

who accumulated assets.

''The intention of the luxury

vehicle data-matching project is to

trace both high risk non-lodgers and

those with undeclared income

based on the value of the assets they

acquire which indicate conspicuous

wealth,'' it said.

The program is an extension of its

conspicuous wealth project.

Results from a pilot program

suggest that as many as one in four

Australians who buy or sell a luxury

car have at least one outstanding tax

return.

The Tax Office said it would cross-

reference the data obtained from

the states and territories with its

records to identify those who

appeared to have tax debts, undeclared

income and unlodged tax

returns.

Those who had bought or sold