What you need to do at tax time depends on your personal situation. Let’s address our most common questions, so you know what to do and how to avoid some common mistakes.
Is my payment taxable?
Depending on the payment you get, they might be either:
- taxable – meaning you pay tax on the amounts and must declare this income in your tax return. That includes Age Pension, JobSeeker Payment, Parental Leave Pay, the Disability Support Pension for people over 67 and some emergency and disaster payments.
- non-taxable – meaning you don't pay tax on the amounts but you may need to include them in your tax return. You don't need to include Family Tax Benefit and Child Care Subsidy.
Your income information, including what payments you got, should pre-fill into your tax return by late July. You’ll be able to find most of your taxable and non-taxable payments that the ATO needs to know about in your Centrelink payment summary online by mid-July.
Some taxable emergency and disaster payments won’t show on your Centrelink payment summary. You’ll need to manually add them to your tax return.
Do you need to lodge a tax return?
Just because your payment’s taxable, that doesn’t mean you need to lodge a tax return. The simplest way to find out is to use the ‘Do I need to lodge?’ tool on the ATO’s website. It asks some questions and tells you what you need to do.
If you’re not required to lodge a tax return and get Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Subsidy, you need to tell Services Australia and confirm your income by using ‘Advise non lodgement of tax return’ in your Centrelink online account in myGov.
If you pay or receive child support and don’t need to lodge a tax return you still need to confirm your income in your Child Support online account.
When’s the best time to lodge?
If you can, it’s best to wait until late July before lodging. This makes things much easier and helps you avoid mistakes. Before you lodge, double-check all your details and make sure nothing’s missing.
What are the most common mistakes to avoid?
- Incorrect information: Out-of-date bank or income details can cause problems with your return or payments.
- Lodging before pre-fill: If you don’t wait for pre-filled information, you might miss something and need to amend your return later.
- Falling for scams: Tax time is prime time for scammers. Services Australia won’t ask you to click on links or open attachments in an SMS or email. If in doubt, go to the official websites or check your secure myGov Inbox.
- Believing misinformation: Only trust information from official websites like servicesaustralia.gov.au and my.gov.au
For more information visit my.gov.au/taxtime for tax time tips.
Until next time.
Hank Jongen
General Manager
Services Australia