Warning: This information may not apply to the current year. Check the content carefully to ensure it is applicable to your circumstances.
Returns received
since
1 July 2012
|
Returns finalised
since
1 July 2012
|
Number of refunds
issued since
1 July 2012
|
Value of refunds
issued since
1 July 2012
|
9,642,000
|
9,308,000**
|
7,557,000
|
$18.92 billion
|
Returns received
since
1 July 2012
|
Returns finalised
since
1 July 2012
|
Number of refunds
issued since
1 July 2012
|
Value of refunds
issued since
1 July 2012
|
981,000
|
1,118,000**
|
571,000
|
$2.35 billion
|
* As at 19 November 2012
** Includes returns received prior to July 2012
Last week we received 266,000 returns including 234,000 2012 year returns between 13 November and 19 November. During this same period, we issued 182,000 refunds with a value of $0.69 billion for 2012 year returns.
We received 206,682 calls between 12 November and 18 November 2012, with:
- 90 per cent of tax practitioner calls answered within two minutes, and
- 68 per cent of calls from the general community answered within five minutes.
During this period the average wait time was 55 seconds for tax practitioner calls and 387 seconds for the general community.
Our risk models have detected and stopped over 84,000 income tax returns suspected of being fraudulent or of containing incorrect claims.
As at 19 November 2012:
- Almost 25,500 tax returns have been released following cross checking and validation against third party information - for example, payment summary data received from employers
- Around 37,500 reviews have been completed
- Around 21,000 tax returns are being held for further review - compliance action has commenced on some 14,000 tax returns
We are on track to contact taxpayers at the latest by the due date specified in the initial delay letter.
We have received 2,572,486 electronic lodgments via our e-tax 2012 service.
E-tax allows you to download your information from financial institutions, employers and a range of Government agencies including Centrelink and Medicare into your tax return.
Last year 73 per cent of e-tax lodgers took advantage of this service. This year the service continues to improve with more information being made available earlier in the financial year.
Traditionally, simple errors in tax returns required a manual correction by an ATO staff member to fix them. For example if you accidently put your wrong date of birth, the processing of the return would stop until it had been checked and corrected.
This year those who make such an error will no longer need their return to be manually corrected. Our system is now automatically checking what we already know about you from previous interactions with us and we adjust those details accordingly.
This means your return will not be held up if you make a minor error. More importantly, any refunds due to you won't be held up because of small errors in your return.
So far this year tax returns lodged electronically were around 35 per cent less likely to require manual corrections compared with paper returns, meaning we were able to finalise these returns a lot quicker. You can subscribe to our alerts service in e-tax and we will send you an email or SMS messages when new or updated information becomes available for you to load into your e-tax return.
Why some returns may take longer
Some tax returns may take longer than others to finalise. The most common reasons why a return may be delayed include:
- we require more information or need to cross check data with Centrelink or the Child Support Program (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 potentially including overstated or fraudulent claims.
To check the progress of your tax return you can use our online progress of return tool or call our automated service on 13 28 61 for personal tax returns and 13 72 26 for business tax returns. These free services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All you need is your tax file number.
The ATO's website www.ato.gov.au provides a wealth of information that can help you this tax time. Some of our most popular pages are:
Last Modified: Thursday, 22 November 2012