What to do at tax time

Lodging online using myTax through myGov

Follow these steps:

1. Sign in to myGov.
2. Select Australian Taxation Office from your linked services.
3. Select Tax from the menu or tab, then Lodgments and then Income tax.
4. You can now view the tax returns you need to lodge.

You’ll need to link the ATO to your myGov account, if you haven’t already.

If you can’t lodge online, find out more about lodgment options on the ATO website.

Waiting until late July for your information to pre-fill

The ATO pre-fills information for you in your online tax return. This saves you time and helps you get your tax right.

Pre-filled information comes from employers, government agencies, health funds and banks. Most of your information will be pre-filled by late July. Check the pre-filled information is right. You can add any income or other information if it is missing.

Find out more about pre-fill availability on the ATO website.

Checking you've reported all your income

Some income and payments may not be on an income statement, payment summary or pre-filled in your online tax return. For example, some government stimulus or disaster recovery payments and some investment income. You may still need to declare this income on your tax return.

Find out what income you must declare on the ATO website.

Find out what payments don’t show on your Centrelink payment summary on the Services Australia website.

Balancing your Child Care Subsidy, Family Tax Benefit and child support

If you lodge a tax return, your income information will be sent to Services Australia. Services Australia will use this to balance your Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Subsidy.

If you have a child support case, Services Australia will also use this to help work out your child support assessment.

Getting help with your tax return

You may be able to get help lodging your tax return through:

• the ATO’s free Tax Help program
• National Tax Clinics that help some people who can’t afford professional help
• a registered tax agent, who you pay to help with your tax return.

Find out if you're eligible for Tax Help or National Tax Clinics on the ATO website.

You can find a registered tax agent on the Tax Practitioners Board website.

You need to submit a non-lodgment advice with the ATO. You can wait until late July for the ATO to pre-fill information to your non-lodgment. You can check if your pre-filled information is right and add information if it is missing.

Find out more about pre-fill availability on the ATO website.

You can submit your non-lodgement advice by using:

• ATO online services through myGov
• the ATO app
• a paper form, you return by post.

You can find out more about how to lodge a non-lodgment advice on the ATO website.

Submitting a non-lodgment advice through myGov

Follow these steps to submit a non-lodgment advice online:

1. Sign in to myGov.
2. Select Australian Taxation Office from your linked services.
3. Select Tax from the menu or tab, then Lodgments, and then Non-lodgment advice.

You may also be able to select Don't need to lodge a return on your ATO online account homepage.

You’ll need to link ATO to your myGov account, if you haven’t already.

Balancing Child Care Subsidy and Family Tax Benefit if you don’t need to lodge a tax return

Child Care Subsidy

To balance your Child Care Subsidy, you need to advise Services Australia that you or your partner don’t need to lodge a tax return. You need to do this even if you had no income or you’ve already told the ATO.

You can do this using either:

• your Centrelink online account through myGov
• the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

Find out more about advising non-lodgement of a tax return for Child Care Subsidy on the Services Australia website.

Family Tax Benefit

Services Australia will use your non-lodgment information from the ATO to balance your Family Tax Benefit.