The end of the financial year is fast approaching and you might be starting to think about getting your tax return in. If you’re getting a taxable payment from Services Australia, I have some tips to help.
Wait until late July
At the end of July, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will pre-fill your online tax return with information about many of your income sources through the financial year. This includes income from your employer and your income support payments.
Pre-filling saves you time and makes it easier for you. You just need to check the information is right.
Use your Centrelink payment summary
If you need to do your tax return sooner, make sure you have your Centrelink payment summary. You can get it from your Centrelink online account in early July. This useful document explains the taxable and non-taxable payments you received from Services Australia.
Not all payments will be displayed on your tax return. Family Tax Benefit and Child Care Subsidy don’t count as income so won’t show up on your payment summary. Pandemic payments and some disaster payments also won’t be pre-filled. Visit servicesaustralia.gov.au/paymentsummary for more information.
Declare emergency or pandemic payments
If you received a federal government pandemic payment last financial year, you’ll need to include it in your tax return.
That includes the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment and the High-Risk Setting Pandemic Payment. The Disaster Recovery Allowance Top-up payment or New Zealand Disaster Recovery Allowance also need to be declared.
The ATO won’t pre-fill these for you.
The Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment is non-taxable, so you don’t need to include that one.
Use the tax time checker
If you get Family Tax Benefit (FTB) or Child Care Subsidy (CCS), use our tax time checker to work out steps you need to take.
When it comes to tax time, different families have to do different things, depending on their circumstances.
For most families, Services Australia can’t balance your payments until after you and your partner have lodged your tax returns and the ATO has confirmed your income for the financial year. This might not happen straight away – it can take up to 28 days for the ATO to provide any information.
Services Australia uses this information to balance both FTB and CCS. We can start balancing FTB from July, and CCS from mid-August.
If you’re not lodging a tax return, you can tell us using the myGov app or your online account.
Set up automatic tax deductions
We don’t take tax out of your payments. But you can ask us to. If you’re working and getting a payment, setting up automatic deductions may help reduce the amount of tax you have to pay at tax time.
You can set it up using your online account.
Hank Jongen is general manager, Services Australia.
Have you started your tax return? Do you leave it until the last minute or get it done in time? Why not share your experience below?
Also read: What you must check when you receive your super fund statement
