How we recover Centrelink debts at tax time

Published: 18 August 2026

We may use your tax refund to pay back money you owe us.

If you owe us money at tax time, we may use your tax refund to pay it back if all the following apply, you:

  • don’t currently get a payment from us
  • don’t have a repayment arrangement in place
  • aren’t actively making repayments.

We may also use your tax refund to repay any other outstanding Family Tax Benefit (FTB) or Child Care Subsidy (CCS) debts you have. We may do this even if you have a repayment arrangement in place or your repayments have been paused due to short term hardship.

To find out how this will affect you, go to how we recover debts at tax time.

Page last updated: 18 August 2026.
QC 84462