Help to get the right outcome at tax time
Avoiding a tax bill
You can estimate how much tax you’re likely to pay with the simple tax calculator on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website. If you don’t have enough tax being withheld from your income this could be because you have multiple sources of income.
Find out about paying tax on multiple sources of income on the ATO website.
You can have tax voluntarily deducted from eligible Centrelink payments. This may help you avoid a tax bill. Find out how to deduct tax from your payments on the Services Australia website.
If you have a study or training loan from the Australian Government, check if you need to start repaying it.
Work out how much you may have to repay in your tax with the study and training loan repayment calculator on the ATO website.
If you need to repay a loan, make sure you tell your employer.
If you or your family’s income has changed, tell your private health insurer so you get the right rebate.
To check if your rebate level has changed, use the private health insurance rebate calculator on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website.
If you plan to claim deductions, you need to keep records of your expenses. This can include costs such as uniforms, work-related travel, and self-education. The deductions you’re eligible to claim will depend on the type of work you do.
Find out more on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website about the:
- myDeductions tool to keep track of your records
- deductions you can claim
- occupation and industry specific guides of work-related expenses for the work you do.
You need to keep records of assets you have such as property, shares in a company or crypto. This helps you work out any capital gain or loss if you sell those assets.
You can use the capital gains tax (CGT) record keeping tool on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website to work out your CGT.
If you get a taxable emergency or disaster payment, keep a record of how much you get.
Some taxable emergency and disaster payments from Services Australia will not show on your Centrelink payment summary. You may need to manually add it to your tax return.
Find out what payments don’t show on your payment summary on the Services Australia website.
Getting the right amount back from Services Australia
Keeping Services Australia up to date about changes will mean you’re paid the right amount through the year. This may help you avoid a debt when family payments are balanced at tax time.
If you get Family Tax Benefit (FTB) or Child Care Subsidy (CCS), make sure you update your family income estimate when your income changes.
Find out more about family income estimate on the Services Australia website.
You can choose how you get Family Tax Benefit (FTB) to help reduce the risk of getting a debt. Find out more about payment choices for FTB on the Services Australia website.
You can update your Child Care Subsidy (CCS) withholdings percentage to create a buffer that may help reduce the risk of getting a debt at the end of the financial year.
To update your CCS withholding percentage through myGov, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your myGov account.
- Select Centrelink from your linked services.
- Select MENU from your homepage.
- Select My Family, followed by Child Care and Withholding Percentage.
You’ll need to link Centrelink to your myGov account, if you haven’t already.
Find out more about withholdings on the Services Australia website.
If you get a payment or allowance from Centrelink, tell Services Australia when your circumstances change.
Find out about changing your circumstances with Centrelink on the Services Australia website.
Make sure all your child support details are right. Find out more on the Services Australia website about: