Understanding tax returns

It's that time again! The end of the financial year is always a bit stressful but this month's tip may help you tidy up your tax-time toils.

For anyone receiving a family payment, it's important to lodge your tax return as soon as possible. This will ensure that you receive any end-of-year Centrelink payments you may be entitled to.

The payment rates for family tax benefit and child care payments are calculated using details from your notice of assessment from the Australian Taxation Office. If you don't need to lodge a tax return this year, it's still important to let us know so that we can balance your payments.

If you are paying or receiving child support, lodging your tax return helps us make sure that your assessment is correct.

We're always happy to give our customers smarter ways of going about their business, and this year our tax-time tools are better than ever. For the first time, you can complete your tax return though my.gov.au, the government's online services portal.

Once you have linked your myGov account to the Australian Taxation Office, your Centrelink income information and Medicare benefit details will be automatically pre-filled in the ATO's e-tax service.

A new tool called the Tax Time Checker also lets you know what you need to do to allow Centrelink to accurately balance your family assistance payments. You can find more information at humanservices.gov.au/taxtime.

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