Tax 2024 - processing timing

Lucille Bluth on 29/06/2024 - 11:31
Last edited 29/06/2024 - 11:59

For those unaware, you can already lodge or play around with your tax return in MyGov for the 2023-2024 period using this link

It has been a few years since Whirlpool allowed a dedicated thread so though I would start one on OzBargain.

As for me, I'm all set to lodge come 1 July as I am always super organised throughout the year, I haved used the "Save and Exit" option. My personal recommendation is
avoiding lodging your return prior to new tax year starting as glitches and delays are prone to occur.

Status of your tax return
When you check the progress of your tax return using our online services, you might see one of these statuses (not all tax returns will display all of these):

In progress – Processing
You may see this status at 2 stages of processing
We have received your tax return and we’ve started processing it.
We have finalised your tax return and are issuing a notice of assessment (you will see an estimated assessment issue date by selecting the down arrow).

In progress – Information pending
We are collecting information to help us finish processing your tax return. We will contact you if we need more information.

In progress – Under review
We are manually reviewing your tax return to make sure everything is right before we finalise it. This may include reviewing your prior year returns. We will contact you if we need more information.

In progress – Balancing account
We are balancing the result of your tax return with your accounts with us and other Australian Government agencies and calculating the amount we will refund or you need to pay. We will contact you if we need more information.

Extra processing time is required
We need more time to finish processing your tax return. We will contact you if we need more information.

Processed
We have completed processing your tax return. Select the down arrow to display your estimated assessment issue date.

Issued – Outcome
We have processed your tax return, you'll be able to see your refund or amount owing (tax debt). For amounts owing, select the Notice of assessment link to view the due date for payment.

Financial

Comments

  • elgrande on 29/06/2024 - 11:34

    So you can log in early and fill in all the fields?

    • Lucille Bluth on 29/06/2024 - 11:37

      Yes. You can lodge now if you wanted to. I have filled out everything and saved it. I will go back in and lodge it on July 1, but there is nothing stopping you otherwise from lodging now.

      • burningrage on 29/06/2024 - 11:46

        Won't it interfere with the pre-fillings?

        • Lucille Bluth on 29/06/2024 - 11:50
          +2

          You don't need to wait for pre-filled information if you are 100% confident in the numbers you enter (e.g. if you have your last payslip with all info, and not waiting on anything else). And you don't need to wait for your return to be "Tax Ready" either.

          If you save and don't lodge, if pre-filled info comes through, you will get a message again to say pre-filled info is now available when you come back to the saved return with the option for the pre-filled info to replace what you entered.

          If you don't know what you are doing, or not 100% sure on the numbers, don't lodge it. Will save you lodging an amendment (or worse).

  • SBOB on 29/06/2024 - 11:46
    +14

    Twiddling thumbs till late August waiting for the likes of vanguard etc to do their paperwork first.

    • DingoBilly on 29/06/2024 - 12:15

      Yep, same issue here.

      Calculating it myself seems insane - I don't think it'd be simple to do so just have to wait.

  • AngoraFish on 29/06/2024 - 12:09
    +5

    Early submission of tax is not recommended by the ATO because of all the prefill information you should be reviewing. In fact, you should be waiting until early August before submitting, at the earliest.

    https://www.ato.gov.au/media-centre/the-stakes-are-high-if-y…

    Even if you are super-organised, it's still possible that the prefills are wrong or you've just forgotten something, and either way you should be checking that information before submitting.

    Furthermore, entering data now but not actually clicking lodge just means you risk having that data wiped by prefills, or worse, have prefills duplicate some of that information making it look like you have been paid twice.

    Glitches and delays are not a thing unless you literally leave submission to the actual last day.

  • bemybubble on 29/06/2024 - 12:20
    +7

    I would highly advise lodging returns from late August.

    Although STP is due 14 July not all make it to this date. Also those receiving distributions from ETFS don’t happen till August/september.

    • brad1-8tsi on 30/06/2024 - 11:36

      Most ETFs announce in June & pay July. August & Feb are very sad in terms of payments.

      Either way, the distribution payment date is immaterial as Vanguard, BetaShares and iShares don't release their tax summary & upload until late August.

  • JIMB0 on 29/06/2024 - 12:24
    +3

    If you use an agent and book in with them before the end of October then you can delay lodgment until May the following year. Handy if you will owe money and want to delay payment.

    • Dollar General on 29/06/2024 - 12:29

      Why not just do your tax in April 2025 if that’s the case?

        • Dollar General on 29/06/2024 - 22:19
          +4

          If you use a tax agent or accountant to complete your tax return, you'll be eligible for an extended tax return deadline. This deadline can vary depending on circumstances, but can be as late as May 15.

      • JIMB0 on 29/06/2024 - 12:59
        +3

        You can as long you're booked in with an agent and on their portal by the end of October. If doing it yourself then you'll need to lodge by the end of October.

        • ol mate on 30/06/2024 - 12:14

          Hypothetically only, but if an agent adds me to their portal before the end of Oct, would I be allowed to submit it myself via Mygov in (e.g.) April without getting in trouble?

  • RetiredMoneyMaestro on 29/06/2024 - 13:19
    -2

    Guys, what are you claiming?

    What would you recommend to claim for someone who is retired? If I was forced to buy a new computer because my old one died, in order to help manage my tax affairs, can I claim that towards the cost of completing the return because it states that you can claim the cost of software, internet access and computer if used to create and manage your tax affairs and online it gives an example of managing a mygov account. Of course, I would only be claiming a small percentage of it, but $10 back is better than nothing considering I needed a new computer, otherwise I would not be able to file this year as I would be unable to download statements and provide them to my accountant.

    Basically I incurred costs to save costs, i.e. would have had to pay the bank for bank statements, if I didn't have access to the digital copies.

    I spoke to my accountant and they stated I can claim anything that is incidentally incurred when generating income, but when I search online about commentary it is just people talking out of their ass or quoting non-authoritative sources. It's a big joke.

    • AngoraFish on 29/06/2024 - 14:06

      I'm just going to contribute to the online commentary of people talking out of their arses here, however the basic principle is that deductions must be clearly related to earning the income, including managing your tax affairs, and nothing else.

      For account keeping and statement fees, these are clearly excluded on your main transaction account because the primary purpose of your transaction account is to buy things and pay your bills, not to generate income.

      The only real way you can claim bank fees as a deducation on your tax is if you have a separate bank account specifically used to run a business, or when the expense is clearly related to an income generating transaction (eg buying something on AliExpress to resell on ebay) or tax affairs transaction (eg the international currency conversation fee charged by your bank, say, if you were buying a self-help book from an overseas source on how to manage your tax affairs.).

      There is no chance that you could realistically, legally, claim any part of the cost of a computer because you'd need to keep a log book to find out what percentage of your time on the computer was related to managing your tax affairs, specifically, and which percentage is for everything else.

      Once you have kept the log book and worked out the relevant percentage (presumably something like 0.01%), you would then need to depreciate the cost of the computer over several years and divide that number again by that number of years to work out your actual claim.

      About the only real claim you are likely to be able to make is $10 for bucket collections under charity donations.

      Note that, in any case, these are only deductions. If you are, for example, on the lowest tax bracket, even claiming the $10 for bucket collections will actually only reduce your payable tax by $1.60.

      • RetiredMoneyMaestro on 29/06/2024 - 15:28

        Have a +1

        Nice thoughts, my accountant already told me about the $50 internet deduction which is similar to the $10 charity donation.

        I am not sure if there are any other loopholes too. I heard there is the $300 limit for other devices, but I am not sure what the authority for that is.

        I did see people on other forums sourcing motley fool of all things.

        • AngoraFish on 29/06/2024 - 15:55
          +1

          You can immediately deduct devices costing $300 or less https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals-and-families/income-deduc…

          The percentage use requirements still, however, apply.

          You can also claim up to $300 for work related expenses without any receipts, however you'd still need an argument about how you came up with that figure if the ATO did audit you, which they almost certainly won't if you're only claiming $310 in deductions.

          You can claim $50 for incidental use of your home phone and the internet for work purposes on the same basis, but again, you need to at least have an argument as to how you worked that out. This may be hard if you are retired. https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals-and-families/income-deduc…

          The ATO also won't fine you if you have a plausible explanation that you made a genuine mistake, which I would think might be relatively easy to pass off if you're retired and only claiming $360 in deductions.

          For what it's worth, using the ATO's simple tax calculator for 22/23, your annual income was around $57000, which would put you in the 32.5c tax bracket, making your $360 deduction equivalent to a $117 reduction in your actual tax debt.

          You'd likely save a lot more than that just by getting rid of your accountant.

    • mskeggs on 29/06/2024 - 14:20
      +1

      How much tax did you pay? You need to have a fairly high retirement income to pay tax if you have set up your affairs sensibly.

      • RetiredMoneyMaestro on 29/06/2024 - 15:26
        +1

        Around $9000. Some people state I might not have structured my affairs properly, but I am trying to avoid the superannuation beneficiary death tax.

        Due to covid, bird flu, disease x and so on there is a risk I might die within the next few years.

        This might be too much information, but I have had a nasty cough for 2 years now. I am not even sure how long I will last.

    • brad1-8tsi on 30/06/2024 - 11:44

      I'm semi-retired. I do occasional casual work but most of my income is from dividends and an account based pension.

      I claim a small percentage of:
      Internet
      laptop
      mobile phone handset
      phone plan
      electricity
      laundry
      workboots
      Maybe a few other minor things.
      some mileage if I'm transporting tools or equipment (can't claim to/from work without tools as I'm employed and not on an ABN)
      some tolls
      It's nowhere near what I used to claim when working FT but that's Ok because I don't pay nearly as much tax these days.

  • CodeXD on 29/06/2024 - 15:31
    +4

    Always wait for pre-fill otherwise it can cause delay and reverse workflow.

  • Brick Tamland on 29/06/2024 - 16:28

    what's the point?

    • Lucille Bluth on 29/06/2024 - 16:30

      Are you replying to me or the unpublished comment?

      For those who want to be organised, or bored over the weekend, they can start filling in stuff now using the link I provided if they wanted to, rather than wait for the actual link to appear in MyGov from 1 July.

      • Brick Tamland on 30/06/2024 - 12:45

        You are better off lodging late July or August for pre-fill

        • Lucille Bluth on 30/06/2024 - 19:26

          I don't . Besides, you don't need to lodge, just start work on your return and save before submitting.

  • Wiadro on 29/06/2024 - 19:30

    i always lodge after the 14th of July.
    i get a refund like 5-7 days after that

    while a lot of people who lodge it in the first ten days wait weeks for their refund

    • Lucille Bluth on 29/06/2024 - 20:36
      +1

      I've always lodged 1 or 2 July for the last 10 years. Never been delayed and always got expected refund 14-19 July. This is according to my lodgement history in MyGov (I just checked because I was curious).

  • AussieDaddy on 29/06/2024 - 20:27

    @Wiadro If you have one main income source (employment) and interest from savings, is there any advantage to waiting for two weeks from the 1st of July before you lodge? I'm single, and renting, so I don't have any complicated streams of income or investment portfolio to take into account, so I always lodge as early as I can do be done with it.

    • RMBC on 30/06/2024 - 09:12
      +1

      Honestly, no; if you have all information at hand, and arent reliant on others for calculation of the information, it wont matter. The ATO do sometimes drag their heels in processing early returns waiting for confirmation from employers/banks etc, however they're required to have that information in quickly. Plus with single touch payroll (stp) salary information is pretty much realtime now

  • Raulioli8810 on 30/06/2024 - 11:14
    -5

    With the pre filled information that's in my account so far, it's $82 tax return 😂😂😂. What an absolute joke of a government Australia has.
    I used to get well over $1900 every year. Guess the common flu, whoops, I mean deadly COVID from 5 years ago is the cause lol.

    • SBOB on 30/06/2024 - 11:27

      Are you including the LMITO, which was a temporary tax measure, introduced before covid?

    • Lucille Bluth on 30/06/2024 - 11:32
      +4

      That just means you were taxed the correct amount throughout the year and didn't give an interest free loan to the government (apart from the $82)

  • Lastchancetosee on 30/06/2024 - 18:50

    All depends on my accountant. If I'm owed money, he submits it asap. If I owe money, we take the longest legal delay.

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