Progress report 6 - income tax returns since 1 July 2010

For our latest update on the progress of returns this tax time, refer to the refund update

Latest figures as at 3 September 2010

Returns received since 1 July 2010	Returns finalised since 1 July 2010	Number of refunds issued since 1 July 2010	Value of refunds issued since 1 July 2010
5.81 million	5.12 million	4.38 million	$11.57 billion

The latest on processing

We have received 5.81 million returns since 1 July and have issued refunds worth nearly $12 billion.

So far this year over 1.52 million people have lodged their tax returns using the ATO's online lodgment system e-tax.

The majority of pre-filling data is available for people to download into their e-tax returns. This includes more than 8 million records from Government agencies, 36 million records from financial institutions, and nearly all information from health funds.

Are we experiencing any problems with the new system?

There are no significant technical errors with the system causing delays.

Waiting for your refund?

During July and early August we experienced some delays which meant some people did not receive their refunds within our usual service standards. We apologise if this was your experience. Please see previous updates for details of past delays.

Some returns take longer than others to process for example if:

• We require more information or need to cross check data with Centrelink or the Child Support Agency (it can take up to three days to check information with another Government agency)
• it is a complex tax return and requires a large amount of manual checking by a Tax Officer, or
• it is identified as being potentially fraudulent.

Errors in a tax return can also delay your refund. Some common errors include:

• forgetting to include your date of birth
• supplying incorrect bank account details
• forgetting to include any name change from a previous year's return for example in the case of marriage, and
• forgetting to include income such as interest from a bank account, or from a previous job.

We encourage people to double-check their returns before they submit them and ensure their details are correct.

Fraudulent or over-claimed refunds

This year we expanded our use of risk models to help detect potentially overstated or fraudulent claims for refunds which has added two days to the processing time for all returns.

So far, as a result, we have identified over 18,000 returns worth more than $79 million which we believe to be potentially fraudulent or include overstated refund claims. Included within these returns is nearly $22 million in claims that are potentially related to identity crime.

Last year 93% of the returns stopped for further review were confirmed to be over-claimed or fraudulent returns.