The ATO have introduced benchmarking as a way to help small businesses compare their performance against similar businesses within an industry.
It aims to protect honest businesses from unfair competition by flagging businesses that fall outside the benchmarks.
The ATO use information received from Tax Returns and Business Activity Statements such as income, cost of sales, total expenditure etc to determine suitable benchmarks for each industry.
For more information on ATO industry benchmarks, visit https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Small-business-benchmarks/In-detail/Benchmarks-by-industry/