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Many people lodge a tax return at tax time, which is from July to October every year. When you lodge a tax return, you report your income and claim deductions. You’ll find out how much tax was withheld last financial year and if you have a debt or are owed a refund.
If you need to lodge a tax return, you may need some information about the payments and services you get from us.
Work out if you need to lodge a tax return
There are different reasons why you may need to lodge a tax return. This may be because you:
- had tax deducted or withheld from your income or Centrelink payments
- need to confirm your income so we can balance your family assistance payments including Family Tax Benefit (FTB) or Child Care Subsidy (CCS)
- have a child support assessment.
When you lodge a tax return with the Australian Tax Office (ATO), your income details are provided to Centrelink to balance your FTB and CCS, and to Child Support to update your assessment. If you don't need to lodge, you need to confirm your income with us.
If you got FTB, CCS or had a child support assessment, you can use our checker tool to see what your family needs to do at tax time.
You can find out more about how to work out if you need to lodge a tax return on the ATO website.
Get your information ready
If you need to lodge a tax return, you may need some information from us to help you fill it in.
We’ll share some of your Centrelink payment details with the ATO so it pre-fills for you in your tax return.
A Centrelink payment summary shows most taxable and non-taxable payments you got from us within a financial year. The ATO needs to know about these. Most of these payment details will pre-fill in the ATO’s myTax by late July.
It’s best to wait until your information has pre-filled before you lodge your tax return. This helps avoid mistakes and the need to amend it later. If you lodge your return before your payment information has pre-filled, you may need to update and resubmit it.
Some emergency and disaster payments are taxable but don’t prefill in myTax or show on your Centrelink payment summary. You’ll need to add these payments to your tax return yourself. Find out the payments that don’t show on your payment summary.
If you’re not eligible for Medicare and need to claim the Medicare levy exemption at tax time, you’ll need a Medicare Entitlement Statement. You can apply for this from 1 July. This will be for the previous financial year. We can’t accept early application unless you’re leaving Australia.
You’ll also need the amount of child support you paid in the financial year, if you paid child support. Find out more about what to do at tax time if you paid or received child support.
Find out more about what to do before you prepare your tax return on the ATO website.
How to protect yourself online at tax time
Scams and identity threats often increase during tax time.
Scammers and online criminals may try to get your personal information, such as your myGov sign in details. They often contact people and pretend to be from Services Australia or myGov.
They tell you to click on a link or give them information. They then use this to gain access to your account to conduct fraud, for example by claiming or redirecting payments. Find out how scams work and how to protect yourself against scams and identity theft.
You can also learn how to avoid and report scams.