The countries have entered their first-ever automatic exchange of data amid a continued international crackdown on tax evasion.

The Australian and US tax collection authorities have carried out their first automatic sharing of bank data, covering more than 30,000 accounts worth more than A$5.0 billion ($3.52 billion).

The exchange was between the Australian Taxation Office and the US Internal Revenue Service. The transfer of information took place under new powers of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which seeks to track down alleged US tax evaders living outside the US.

“The information provided on US citizens and tax residents with Australian bank accounts is the first step in a wave of transparency measures being implemented globally by governments and tax administrations,” a statement from the ATO said yesterday.

In return for sharing the data with US authorities, the ATO will receive data from the IRS about Australians with financial accounts in the US and will use that data to detect cases of undeclared offshore income and tax evasion, it said.

“The ATO is committed to ensuring that taxpayers are disclosing their offshore income and in 2017 will implement the Common Reporting Standard, under which it will exchange financial account information with almost 100 countries," the regulator said. 

During 2014 to 2015, the ATO engaged in 519 exchanges of information resulting in total tax liabilities of A$255 million (up from A$250 million in 2013-2014).