When do I have to lodge my tax return by?
What do I do if I can’t lodge my return by the due date?
How much trouble do I get in if I don’t lodge my return by the due date?
I haven’t lodged my tax for a few years, can you help me?
Do I need to make an appointment?
What should I do if I can’t make my appointment?
I can’t make it to your office to complete my tax return, am I able to fax/post/e-mail in my return?
Am I able to authorise my spouse/partner to complete my tax return on my behalf?
When will Austax lodge my return?
Is my return lodged with the ATO electronically?
How long will it take to get my refund?
How will I know that my return has been processed?
What payment methods does Austax accept?
I am paying your fees from my refund, how does this work?
My spouse/sibling/friend lodged their return with Austax on same day I did. They have their refund already, where is mine?
I lodged multiple returns for the past X years with Austax on the same day. Why have I only received one of the refunds?
I have received a notice of assessment in the mail but there is no money in my bank account. What do I do?
It's been 30 days and I still haven't seen anything, where is my refund?
What do I do if my refund is different to the estimate provided by Austax?
I have already lodged my return and I have subsequently; Received a second/amended PAYG Summary. Realised I had forgotten to declare some income. Found some extra receipts. Discovered an error in the original return. What should I do?
I believe that I may have money in a lost superannuation account. What should I do?

When do I have to lodge my tax return by?

Generally your tax return will be due for lodgement no earlier than the 31st of October. However if you lodged the preceding years tax return with Austax you will generally be eligible for an extended due date of the 30th of November and possibly even longer.

What do I do if I can’t lodge my return by the due date?

Please contact our office to discuss your circumstances as soon as possible. Where you are unable to lodge your return prior to the due date imposed by the ATO due to circumstances beyond your control (eg, serious illness, defence force members posted overseas) we may be able to arrange an extension of the lodgement due date. Other options may include appointing a representative to manage your affairs on your behalf.

How much trouble do I get in if I don’t lodge my return by the due date?

Taxpayers that fail to lodge their tax returns on time face fines and potential imprisonment under the Taxation Administration Act (1953). In practice these measures are not always applied depending on a number of variables such as the number of returns overdue, the amount of tax owing from these assessments, your previous lodgement history and your compliance with a directive to lodge your returns. Note that by failing to lodge your tax returns on time you may also be required to repay other government benefits such as the Family Tax Benefit and Child Care Rebate.

I haven’t lodged my tax for a few years, can you help me?

Yes, we are equipped to prepare electronic returns from 1990 onwards so this poses no great difficulty. Note however that returns prepared for the 1997 financial year and earlier must be lodged as paper returns with the ATO and take additional time to process.

Do I need to make an appointment?

Yes you do. During our peak period of July to October appointments are absolutely essential. It is not unusual for our accountants to be fully booked up weeks in advance during this time so we advise that you book well in advance to avoid disappointment, particularly if you want to see a particular accountant, or want an appointment of an evening or on Saturdays.

What should I do if I can’t make my appointment?

Please contact our office as soon as possible to notify us and allow us to reschedule your appointment.

I can't make it to your office to complete my tax return, am I able to fax/post/e-mail in my return?

Many of our clients are unable to make it to our office to have their tax returns completed face to face. Fortunately, with the technology available these days this presents no problem. You can post, fax or e-mail your job to our office from anywhere in the world.

Should you wish to take advantage of this service, simply download and complete our Client information Questionnaire and forward it to us along with your tax documents, you can review our Individual Taxation Checklist if you are not sure what information we will require. New clients will also need to include a legible copy of their drivers licence or passport that has been certified as a true copy by a Justice of the Peace. We also require that the JP includes their contact telephone number on any certified copies.

For returns being sent via post;
We recommend only posting copies of your tax documents rather than the originals. You will need your documents to substantiate your claims should the ATO audit your return so you don’t want them getting lost in the mail. If you are forwarding your original documents please ensure you use registered mail to reduce the risk of them being lost in the post. Whilst we endeavour to return all original documents to our clients upon completion of their return we accept no responsibility for documents which are lost in the mail.

Ensure you address your letter to our postal address; PO BOX 460 Ingleburn NSW 1890 and attention your letter to your accountant.

For returns being sent via fax;
Fax your return to us on (02) 9829 2670. Please ensure that you include a fax cover sheet at the beginning of your fax that contains your name, a contact phone number, the number of pages that are being sent and attention your fax to your accountant. If you are sending multiple faxes please use a cover sheet for each fax to ensure that your paperwork is filed correctly.

For returns being sent via email;
You can send your return via email to taxreturns@austaxaccountants.com.au or directly to your accountants’ personal email address. For scanned attachments, it is crucial that you ensure that they are of sufficient size and resolution to able to produce a legible printed copy at A4 size.

We recommend that you request a read receipt when sending your e-mail as there is a chance that your e-mail may be caught by an overzealous spam filter and not actioned. If you haven’t received an acknowledgment of receipt within a few days please phone our office to confirm whether we have received your job.

Am I able to authorise my spouse/partner to complete my tax return on my behalf?

Yes, generally this can be done in two ways;

If you have granted someone a general power of attorney you may have your attorney complete your return on your behalf.

Otherwise, you can authorise a representative to complete a tax return on your behalf by making a declaration under section 388-65 of Shdeule 1 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953. This declaration can be found as part of the ‘Nomination of a representative’ form available from the ATO here. This form must be completed correctly and signed by both the taxpayer and their appointed representative to be valid.

In either situation Austax will also require 100 points of identification for both the taxpayer and their representative along with the power of attorney or notice of appointment of a representative. Only original identification documents or copies certified by a Justice of the Peace are acceptable. We require that the JP includes their contact telephone number on any certified copies. We also require at least one form of ID for both the taxpayer and their representative that contains a specimen of their signature.

When will Austax lodge my return?

Once your return is complete, Austax will generally lodge your return with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) as soon as possible. By complete we mean that, your return has been finalised, you have signed off on all the documentation and/or declarations required by Austax and you have paid all outstanding fees (or arranged for them to be paid from your refund).

Where your return is completed after 5pm or on a weekend your return may be lodged the next business day (Mon-Fri). All other returns are generally lodged the same day they are completed.

Is my return lodged with the ATO electronically?

The Australian Tax office offers it’s Superseeker service online as a way of locating your lost superannuation, to use it simply visit www.ato.gov.au and search for super seeker. Alternatively you can utilise the automated telephone service provided by the ATO on 132 865.

How long will it take to get my refund?

Once your return is lodged, the ATO will process it and issue you with a notice of assessment. If you’re owed a refund, it will be issued at the same time.

The ATO service standard for assessing a current year tax return lodged electronically is 30 days. This means that the ATO does not consider your return to be "late" until 30 days have passed from the date of lodgement.

However, the ATO’s statistics show that they usually process 94% tax returns that have been lodged electronically within 14 days of receiving them.

The ATO offers an automated phone service to allow taxpayers to check the progress of their return. This can be accessed by calling 13 28 65.

How will I know that my return has been processed?

The first indication that most clients receive that their return has been processed is the extra money in their nominated bank account. This is due to the EFT of your refund taking place the same day your notice of assessment is issued. The notice of assessment will usually arrive a few days later in the mail. If you have elected to pay your tax return fees from the proceeds of your refund your receipt will arrive with your notice of assessment.

What payment methods does Austax accept?

We accept payment by cash, cheque, direct debit, EFTPOS, Visa, Mastercard and American Express. If you are receiving a tax refund we can also arrange to deduct our fees from your refund for a small additional fee.

I am paying your fees from my refund, how does this work?

Clients electing to have our fees paid from their tax refund will have authorised their notice of assessment to be sent to our office and their refund to be deposited directly into our trust account. Once these have arrived at our office, we process your return and forward the balance of your refund to your nominated bank account and forward your notice of assessment along with our trust account receipt.

My spouse/sibling/friend lodged their return with Austax on same day I did. They have their refund already, where is mine?

This is nothing to worry about. It is normal for returns lodged in the same batch on the same day to be processed at different times. This is due to the way the ATO processes returns. Each return is grouped for processing based on common items contained in the returns or characteristics of the return. For example, returns containing a high level of work related expenses or that generate a very large refund generally take longer to process as they are subject to a higher level of checking by the ATO.

Having dealings with other government departments also delays returns. For example, being the recipient of Family Tax Benefits usually adds about 5 days to the processing time of a tax return, as the ATO needs to communicate with the Family Assistance Office before they can finalise the return.

I lodged multiple returns for the past X years with Austax on the same day. Why have I only received one of the refunds?

This is nothing to worry about. It is normal for clients who lodge multiple prior year returns at the same time to have them processed at different times.

This is due to the way the ATO processes returns. The ATO may process your returns as one batch, multiple batches or separately. Processing usually occurs in chronological order however this is not always the case.

Furthermore the typical ATO processing times do not apply to prior year returns as some information provided in your tax return is carried forward into future returns. This means you may experience significant additional processing times depending on how many overdue returns were lodged.

Failure to lodge your income tax returns on-time is a crime and punishable by fine or imprisonment. We offer clients who have lodged multiple overdue returns and are unhappy with the length of time the ATO is taking to process their returns the following advice, don’t poke the angry bear.

I have received a notice of assessment in the mail but there is no money in my bank account. What do I do?

For clients that paid our fees upfront:
The bank account your refund is being directed to is shown at the very bottom of the front page of your tax return.

Ensure that your bank account details are correct and that you are checking the correct bank account. Your refund is usually prefixed by "ATO" followed by the sequence number shown on your notice of assessment.

If the bank details supplied on your return are incorrect, then the ATO will forward you a cheque which usually takes about two weeks.

For clients that paid our fees from their tax refund:
The bank account details your refund was deposited to are printed on the trust account receipt that accompanies your notice of assessment.

Ensure that your bank details are correct and that you are checking the correct bank account. Your refund is usually prefixed by "Austax" followed by the receipt number shown on your trust account receipt.

If the bank details supplied on your return are incorrect, then Austax has probably been trying to contact you! Please call our office as soon as possible to advise us of the correct bank account details.

It's been 30 days and I still haven't seen anything, where is my refund?

Generally speaking returns that experience delays in processing by the tax office may be incomplete, incorrect or have been subject to further checks by the ATO. This may be in relation to a number of things, for example;

• Income reported to the ATO being omitted from a return,
• Name changes that have not been notified to the ATO, eg, in the case of marriage,
• Incorrect date of birth details on file at the ATO,
• Enquiries regarding Child Support Obligations,
• Enquiries regarding Family Tax Benefit entitlements,
• Delays in the supply of information from third parties to the ATO, eg, PAYG Payment Summaries from employers, or
• ATO audit or investigation.

As the delay may be due to any of a number of reasons, please contact our office and speak with our staff so that they may investigate your situation further.

What do I do if my refund is different to the estimate provided by Austax?

Please wait until you receive your notice of assessment and statement of account, as these documents should explain why this is the case. In the vast majority of cases your notice of assessment will match our estimate precisely and the difference is due to either money owed to other government departments being repaid using your tax refund or interest being charged or paid on your account.

The amount of any adjustment is shown on your statement of account. If any of your refund was paid to another government department, the name of that department is also shown on the statement of account.

If your notice of assessment differs from our estimate or you are unsure please contact our office and speak with your accountant.

I have already lodged my return and I have subsequently;

• Received a second/amended PAYG Summary.
• Realised I had forgotten to declare some income.
• Found some extra receipts.
• Discovered an error in the original return.

What should I do?

You will need to contact your accountant to arrange for an amendment to be made to your original return as soon as possible. You generally only have a limited period of two years to amend your tax return so time is of the essence in these situations. Furthermore, in instances where you discover that you have omitted income from your return, making a voluntary declaration before the ATO reviews your return and amends it for you can save you from having to pay some hefty penalties for failure to declare income that can range from 25% to 125% of the amount of additional tax payable.

I believe that I may have money in a lost superannuation account. What should I do?

Baring exceptional circumstances or returns for the 1997 financial year or earlier, all returns prepared by Austax are lodged electronically with the Australian Taxation Office.