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We have information in different languages about Balancing Family Tax Benefit
For Centrelink payments and services, you can call our multilingual phone service.
The financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. We start to balance FTB payments after the financial year ends and you get your last payment.
You usually need to confirm your income before we can balance your payments. If you have a partner, they’ll need to do this too.
If you’re unsure what you need to do to balance your payments, you can check using our what families need to do at tax time tool.
If you lodge a tax return
Once you or your partner lodge your tax returns, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will tell us your incomes. We'll use this information to balance your FTB.
Some Centrelink payments won’t be pre filled in your tax return and won’t show on your Centrelink payment summary. Read more about payments that don't show on it.
If you don’t need to lodge a tax return
You need to tell us if you and your partner, if you have one, don’t need to lodge a tax return.
In some cases, we can’t balance your FTB unless you tell us how much income you or your partner got.
If you have a Centrelink online account linked to myGov, you can sign in and tell us if you and your partner don’t need to lodge a tax return to and confirm your income for the financial year.
If you don’t have a myGov account or a Centrelink online account, you’ll need to create them.
You can also tell us using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.
Some payments won’t prefill when telling us you don’t need to lodge a tax return online. They also won’t appear on your Centrelink payment summary. You must include all adjusted taxable income you got from Centrelink and any other income you had. This is so we can balance your payments correctly.
If you were affected by a declared natural disaster and got a government payment, you may need to include this as income. You must also include all taxable payments you got from other government departments, including some payments from Veterans’ Affairs.
Read more about payments that don’t show on your Centrelink payment summary.
If you separated from a partner during the financial year
If you separated from a partner during the financial year, we’ll balance your FTB after you confirm your income. We’ll use the income estimate provided for your ex-partner if they haven’t lodged a tax return yet.
If you also got CCS, read more about how we balance CCS if you separated from a partner.
If you were single and got an income support payment
If you were single and got an income support payment for the financial year, you might not have to do anything for your FTB to balance. You may still need to lodge a tax return for another reason, such as if you have a child support assessment.
Read more about FTB balancing dates if you were single and got an income support payment.
If you got Child Care Subsidy
It’s important to keep in mind that we balance FTB and balance CCS separately.
If you got CCS, you’ll need to confirm your income, even if you don’t need to for FTB. Read more about balancing CCS.