Emergency and disaster payments at tax time

Published: 3 July 2026

Some emergency and disaster payments are taxable but won’t show on your Centrelink payment summary and won’t be pre-filled in your tax return.

You can check payments you got in your Centrelink online account through myGov.

If you got New Zealand Disaster Recovery Allowance, this won’t pre-fill in your tax return, so you’ll need to add it manually.

If you got Disaster Recovery Allowance, this will pre-fill in your tax return, so you don’t need to add it yourself.

You don’t need to include Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment or New Zealand Disaster Recovery Payment in your tax return.

Find out more about which payments show on your Centrelink payment summary.

Page last updated: 3 July 2026.
QC 84323