Hello everyone.
Tax time is the period between July and October each year when most people are required to lodge a tax return or tell the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) if they don’t have to. If you’re getting a payment from Services Australia, you need to be ready.
Do you need to lodge a tax return?
Just because a payment is taxable doesn’t mean you have to lodge a tax return. Use the ATO’s ‘Do I need to lodge a tax return?’ tool on their website, ato.gov.au, to find out.
If you do need to lodge a tax return, it’s easier to lodge if you wait for your income statement to be marked as tax-ready and for your information to be pre-filled with the ATO before you lodge.
If you don’t need to lodge a tax return, you need to tell the ATO and, in some cases, Services Australia.
If you get Family Tax Benefit (FTB) or Child Care Subsidy (CCS)
At the end of each financial year, we’ll compare your income estimate with your actual income. This is how we check that you got the right amount. This is called balancing.
If you got FTB or CCS, you need to confirm your income so we can balance your payment. If you had a partner during this time, they would need to do this as well. You need to do this even if you have no income.
You can confirm your income by lodging a tax return. If you don’t need to lodge, you can tell us in your Centrelink online account linked to myGov or the Express Plus Centrelink app.
Most families need to do something before they can balance their FTB or CCS. You can use our tax time tool to understand what you need to do at tax time. Check out servicesaustralia.gov.au/taxtime to help, as every family is different.
Be aware of scammers
Scams and identity theft often increase during tax time. Scammers may tell you to click on a link or ask you to enter your myGov sign-in details so they can steal your personal information.
Be wary of emails, phone calls, texts and social media messages claiming to be from us, the ATO, myGov or another government department. If in doubt, don’t respond.
To safely access your myGov account and linked services, use the official myGov app or sign in at my.gov.au.
Set up tax deductions from your taxable payments
You can choose to have a tax deduction set up from your eligible taxable payment, but we won’t advise you how much to deduct. You should first check if it’s necessary because:
- Not all payments are taxable
- You need to have other sources of taxable income in the financial year, which means you earn more than the tax-free threshold and must pay tax.
Setting up deductions at the beginning of the financial year helps to avoid getting an unexpected tax bill.
Until next time.
Hank Jongen
General Manager
Services Australia
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