Lodge your return early to avoid delays during the Christmas-New Year period

As in previous years, we will close during the Christmas-New Year holiday period.

This means that we will be suspending our return and form processing from 3.00pm AEDT Friday 23 December 2011 until 9.00am AEDT Tuesday 3 January 2012. As a result, returns lodged from mid December to early January will take longer than usual to process.

To increase the likelihood of receiving your notice of assessment and any associated refund before the holiday period, we recommend you lodge your return or other forms electronically by 9 December 2011.

For returns lodged electronically between 10 December and 23 December, refunds are expected to issue from Tuesday 3 January 2012. Refunds for returns lodged from 23 December 2011 will start to issue from Monday 16 January 2012.

The timeline below outlines the key dates and processing timeframes over the Christmas-New Year period:

As part of routine processing, some returns will take longer to process. For example returns where:

• we require more information from you or need to cross-check information with Centrelink (for example if you have received family tax benefits) or the Child Support Program
• items on the return need to be manually checked (for example if the name and address on your return does not match our records)
• the return is identified as being potentially fraudulent or includes overstated claims.

We encourage people to double-check their returns before they submit them, as simple errors in a tax return can delay a refund. Some common errors are:

• forgetting to include your date of birth
• supplying incorrect bank account details
• forgetting to include details of where a name or address has changed from previous details supplied, for example in the case of marriage
• forgetting to include interest from a bank account, or income from a previous job.