Late tax returns
Many Australians think it’s too late to lodge a previous year’s tax return. Or they think that, because a few years have passed, they don’t need to lodge anymore.
The ATO is very clear that you have to lodge a tax return for each year that you received any income. The ATO does not just forgive and forget. And the trouble is, if you ignore old late tax returns, you might end up receiving costly ATO fines and penalties.
- If you have a late tax return, you should lodge it as soon as possible. (The longer you wait, the more chance of an ATO penalty.)
- If you lodge your late tax return now and you don’t owe the ATO any money, usually they won’t charge any late lodgement penalties*.
It doesn’t matter if you have one late return or a whole bunch of overdue tax returns – the sooner you lodge your returns, the better.
“I don’t have any record of my income for a certain year…”
Have you misplaced your payment summary or group certificate for a particular tax year?
Is that why you have a late tax return?
Don’t worry: We can retrieve your tax records direct from the ATO to help complete your tax return. This can include your payment summary, plus income earned from bank interest and government agencies.
(The ATO already knows a surprising amount of your tax return information before you lodge a return – but you still have to lodge it.) There is the odd occasion where the ATO will not have your details so speak to us about your circumstances.
Please note: For all late tax returns, we will check information from the ATO. Unfortunately, sometimes the ATO did not receive information from your old employers, etc. Don’t worry, though – we can still help get your return lodged properly.
“But I earned less than under the tax free threshold or no income at all…”
If your income is below the tax free threshold or you had no income at all in any tax year, you are still required to notify the ATO. Instead of lodging a late tax return, you are required to submit a Non-Lodgement Advice. This lets the ATO know that you were not required to lodge a tax return that year.
If you think you are in this category, please contact us. We can check whether you need to lodge a late tax return or a Non-Lodgement Advice and help you get it done. Even if your income is below the tax free threshold there are certain circumstances where you may still be required to lodge an income tax return.
The peace of mind in knowing your tax affairs are up to date can be very relaxing and liberating; it is not hard to get it done so why wait any longer?
“I am afraid of owing the ATO money – I can’t afford to pay.”
When you owe the ATO money, the best thing is to get your late tax returns all up-to-date now, then work with a registered tax agent who can help you arrange a payment schedule with the ATO. The ATO can be very reasonable about payments as long as you get on top of it and are honest with them.
PLEASE NOTE: That registered tax agents are penalised for having clients who have outstanding tax returns and overdue lodgements, The lodgement extension can be lost for all clients and an increase in audits can occur. In order to protect all our compliant clients we have a policy that we will assist new clients to get up to date however they must remain up to date like the rest of our clients. We also remind our clients frequently to ensure they lodge on time and those overdue receive warnings, after two strikes we do ask those non compliant clients to find a new accountant.