Pre-filling service - e-tax
Pre-filling service - e-tax
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The pre-filling service for 2012 is no longer available. E-tax 2012 has now closed so you cannot pre-fill or lodge your 2012 tax return online, even if you have already downloaded the software.
If you use a tax agent they can still access your 2012 pre-filling information for you.
The e-tax 2013 software and the pre-filling service will be available from 1 July 2013.
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Pre-filling is a service available within e-tax which partially completes your tax return for you. It downloads information straight into your e-tax return using both:
- current year information from organisations that must report to us, such as employers, banks, government agencies and others
- the data we have from your account activity and previous tax returns.
All you have to do is check the pre-filled information and add any missing details.
Pre-filling is designed to help you by making your e-tax return easier to complete and more accurate.
Information is available to download into e-tax within a couple of days of it being sent to us from other organisations, with most information available now.
Our Questions and answers section will help answer the following questions:
Questions and answers
The benefits for you
- Pre-filling makes completing your e-tax return easier and more accurate.
- Pre-filling downloads information to partially complete your e-tax return for you, ready for you to review.
- Most information goes directly to the correct items on your e-tax return, so you don't have to work out where to put it.
- Other useful information is downloaded into a summary for you to review to help remind you about amounts you may need to declare or claim on your e-tax return.
- Provided you resolve any discrepancies between your records and what is pre-filled, you know the income on your e-tax return matches what we have on our records.
- You have the convenience of access to the pre-filling service 24 hours a day, seven days a week (during the period e-tax is available).
- You can identify lost or forgotten records, such as lost bank statements and payment summaries sent to previous addresses.
- If all your information does not download you can simply add in any missing details or register for the alerts service in e-tax and we will let you know when your information is available.
The benefits for us
- There will be fewer discrepancies for us to follow up because the information is correctly entered on your e-tax return.
- There will be fewer amendments for us to process because you can confirm that the information you have and the information from third-party providers is correct.
This means cost savings for the entire community.
To access the pre-filling service you need to download e-tax and verify your identity.
You can choose to pre-fill your return:
- at the start of your e-tax interview (select the Yes button when e-tax asks you if you would like to use pre-filling)
- any time during your e-tax interview (select the Pre-fill button below the Navigator bar).
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You do not need to use the same computer as last year to use the pre-filling service.
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Once your data has been pre-filled into your e-tax return you will find:
- some information and amounts have been downloaded and pre-filled directly into the correct labels
- other information, such as reminders, are downloaded into a summary for you to review.
You then:
- check the pre-filled information against your own records
- correct the pre-filled information if necessary
- delete any duplicated information
- add any missing details.
You must review all pre-filled information
The information and amounts we pre-fill from third-party organisations may be incomplete or different from your own records.
What information can be pre-filled?
The pre-filling service won't complete your whole e-tax return for you. You will still need to manually enter some information.
For more information, see Information available to pre-fill.
Where is your pre-filling information?
If you have attempted to use the pre-filling service and some, or all, of your information is unavailable, refer to the following table.
You still need to lodge your tax return by 31 October, even if all your pre-filling information isn't available.
Possible reason
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Why
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What you can do
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We haven't received it yet.
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Information from other organisations is reported to us from 1 July onwards (most information is available by late July).
Most information is ready to download and pre-fill within a couple of days of us receiving it.
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Check the availability status of the information you are waiting for.
If it shows that the information you are seeking is available, you can contact the data provider to ask whether they have reported your information to us and obtain any necessary statements to complete your e-tax return (if you haven't already received them).
Otherwise you can subscribe to alerts, and we will send you an email or SMS when more of your information becomes available.
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We could not match the information to your record.
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This usually happens when the details on the information reported to us by the organisation, such as name, date of birth, address and tax file number (TFN), do not match those recorded for you on our databases.
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If the data provider says they have already lodged your information with us, you should check that they have correctly recorded your TFN and other personal details to ensure they match those on our systems.
If the information supplied to us by the reporting organisation is incorrect, they will need to correct those records with us.
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The information did not pass all processing checks.
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There might have been some errors in the data sent to us by the reporting organisation.
For example, if there are alphabetical characters in a 'dollars and cents' field.
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You will need to use your own records to manually complete your tax return.
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What if the pre-filled information is wrong?
If you think the pre-filled information is incorrect, you should ask the organisation who provided it to us to check it. For example, if we pre-fill $25 interest from Bank XYZ and you think you received only $12, you should query this with the bank. Perhaps they have recorded your account in only one name when it is actually a joint account.
If you don't understand or agree with the pre-filling information, you should:
- check the pre-filled information against your own records or statements
- check the Known issues section for common problems and what you should do
- clarify the discrepancy with the information provider - they may need to send amended information to us.
You can amend or delete the details in e-tax if you have more current information than what is pre-filled.
Our 'Known issues' section has information about common or recurring problems and how to fix them.
This includes the following issues:
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Avoid an audit - resolve discrepancies before you lodge
If you amend the pre-filled information on your e-tax return, it is important to resolve any discrepancies you identify with the organisation that provided that information to us before you lodge.
This is because we routinely do information matching to identify discrepancies between the information on a lodged tax return and the information provided to us by external information providers.
When a discrepancy is identified, we will seek clarification from you.
The pre-filling service can help you to avoid having to explain these differences later by giving you access to the information we have received from other information providers - such as employers, financial institutions and other government agencies. You can then resolve any discrepancies before you lodge.
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Can you rely on pre-filling for lost records?
If you have lost records, such as your payment summaries or bank statements, pre-filling may be able to help you by downloading them straight into e-tax for you. However, you should always verify this information with your own records.
The pre-filling service may contain incomplete or incorrect information because:
- the information provider has
- not reported your records to us yet
- reported incorrect details
- issued an amended record that has not yet been processed by us
- we could not identity-match the information to you on our systems.
Pre-filling does not alter your current responsibilities to provide a complete and accurate tax return.
You still need to keep receipts and records to support your claims. For more information, refer to Keeping your tax records.
How do you subscribe for pre-filling alerts?
To subscribe to the pre-filling alerts service, you first need to download e-tax and choose to pre-fill your e-tax return. E-tax will ask you to verify your identity to obtain your e-tax password.
You will then need to enter your mobile phone number (for SMS alerts) or your email address (for email alerts) on the Alerts service screen in e-tax.
For more information, see:
Information available to pre-fill
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The pre-filling service for 2012 is no longer available. E-tax 2012 has now closed so you cannot pre-fill or lodge your 2012 tax return online, even if you have already downloaded the software.
If you use a tax agent they can still access your 2012 pre-filling information for you.
The e-tax 2013 software and the pre-filling service will be available from 1 July 2013.
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Select the relevant links below for more information about what we pre-fill.
There are two ways to pre-fill your personal details into your 2012 e-tax return - using the pre-filling service and the rollover feature.
The pre-filling service can download the spouse details you included on your 2011 tax return.
You can also use the rollover feature in e-tax, which allows you to transfer (roll over) certain information from your 2011 tax return to this year's e-tax return.
You can roll over information in e-tax if both of the following apply:
- used e-tax to prepare your 2011 tax return
- have the e-tax 2011 data file (tax) located on the computer you are using to complete your 2012 tax return.
You can find instructions on how to use the rollover feature in e-tax.
Question
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Details
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1
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Salary or wages
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Reported by:
Includes:
details from the
- PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
- PAYG payment summary - foreign employment
- parental leave payments from Centrelink (parental leave payments paid by your employer will be included as part of the gross amount on your PAYG payment summary)
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2
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Allowances, earnings, tips, director's fees etc
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Reported by:
employers
Includes:
details from the PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
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3
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Employer lump sum payments
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Reported by:
employers
Includes:
details from the
- PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
- PAYG payment summary - foreign employment
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4
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Employment termination payments
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Reported by:
employers
Includes:
details from the PAYG payment summary - employment termination payment
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5
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Australian Government allowances and payments like Newstart, Youth allowance and Austudy payment
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Reported by:
- Centrelink
- Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA)
- Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)
Includes:
details from the PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
- taxable payments
- tax exempt payments
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6
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Australian Government pensions and allowances
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7
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Australian annuities and superannuation income streams
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Reported by:
superannuation funds
Includes:
details from the:
- PAYG payment summary - superannuation income stream
- PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
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8
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Australian superannuation lump sum payments
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Reported by:
superannuation funds
Includes:
details from the PAYG payment summary - superannuation lump sum
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9
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Attributed personal services income
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Reported by:
employers and payers
Includes:
details from the PAYG payment summary - business and personal services income
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10
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Gross interest
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Reported by:
- financial institutions
- share registries
- us
From financial institutions, this includes:
- a list of interest-bearing accounts, including savings and term deposit accounts
- your sole and joint accounts, as an individual; for example
- you can see husband-and-wife joint accounts
- you cannot see business partnership accounts
- interest income from fixed interest securities.
From us, this includes:
- net amounts of assessable interest we have paid to you for the following transactions
- interest on early payments (IEP)
- interest on overpayments (IOP)
- delayed refund interest (DRI).
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11
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Dividends
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Reported by:
- listed public corporations
- share registries
Includes:
- investment accounts that are issuer or Clearing House Electronic Sub-register System (CHESS) sponsored
- sole and joint accounts, as an individual; for example
- you can see husband-and-wife joint accounts
- you can't see business partnership accounts
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12
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Employee share schemes
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Reported by:
employers and payers
Includes:
some employee share scheme (ESS) details will be pre-filled directly into item 12. Others will be pre-filled as information only.
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14
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Personal services income (PSI)
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Reported by:
employers and payers
Includes:
details of payments made under voluntary agreement, labour hire and other specified payments which are displayed as 'information only data' because they may need to be completed at item 14 or item 15 depending on your circumstances
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15
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Net income or loss from business
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18
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Capital gains
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Reported by:
- share registries
- Offices of State Revenue
- listed public companies
- managed funds
- prior year tax returns
Includes:
- reminders and advisory messages where e-tax detects the possibility of a capital gain or capital loss relating to
- rental properties you may have sold or transferred
- investments you have held that may be affected by a class ruling
- shares that you have disposed of
- details of managed fund accounts that you hold solely, or jointly, as an individual
- fund name
- account number
- account name.
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20
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Foreign source income and foreign assets or property
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Reported by:
- employers and payers
- managed funds
Includes:
details from the:
- PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
- PAYG payment summary - foreign employment
- managed fund accounts that you hold solely, or jointly, as an individual
- fund name
- account number
- account name
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24
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Other income
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Reported by:
Includes:
- details from the
- PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
- PAYG payment summary - foreign employment
- Total net assessable interest income - displays as 'information only' data as special conditions apply - see known issues
- This amount relates to interest we imposed that has been reimbursed or remitted, and other transactions. If these amounts relate to interest for which you claimed, or can claim, a tax deduction in 2011-12 or an earlier year, you must include this amount at this label.
- The figure includes transactions in relation to:
- general interest charges (GIC)
- shortfall interest charges (SIC)
- late payment interest (LPI)
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Important note about managed fund data
You can view the following details of accounts that you hold solely, or jointly, as an individual:
- fund name
- account number
- account name.
The dollar amounts of managed fund distributions are not pre-filled in e-tax.
We are working with fund managers to provide more complete data in the future. In the meantime, you need to refer to the distribution statements provided by your fund manager to complete your distribution details, such as capital gains, capital losses and foreign loss quarantining.
Deductions you claimed last year are provided as 'information only data' for you to consider their relevance again this year.
For the current year, the following information is available for pre-filling:
Question
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Details
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D5
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Other work related expenses
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Reported by:
employers
Includes:
union or professional association fees reported on the PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
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D9
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Gifts or donations
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Reported by:
employers
Includes:
workplace giving reported on the PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
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D10
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Cost of managing tax affairs
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Reported by:
us
Includes:
Total net deductible interest expenses - displays as 'information only' data as special conditions apply - see known issues.
This amount relates to interest we impose. As this amount was imposed in the 2011-12 year, you may be able to claim it at this label.
The figure includes transactions in relation to:
- general interest charge (GIC)
- shortfall interest charge (SIC)
- late payment interest (LPI)
For more information about ATO interest, see known issues
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Question
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Details
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T4
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Australian superannuation income stream
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Reported by:
super funds
Includes:
details from the PAYG payment summary - superannuation income stream
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T5
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Private health insurance
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Reported by:
registered health insurers
Includes:
information for clients who have not claimed the 30% government rebate as a reduced premium
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T6
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Education tax refund
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You can no longer claim the education tax refund (ETR). The ETR has been replaced by the Schoolkids bonus.
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T8
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Zone or overseas forces
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Reported by:
Centrelink
Includes:
remote area allowances which are not pre-filled to your e-tax return but will be shown as 'information only' in a summary that you can print
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T9
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20% tax offset on net medical expenses over the threshold amount
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Reported by:
Medicare Australia
Includes:
the Medicare benefit tax statement for:
- you
- other people who were under 18 years old and listed on your Medicare card
It shows you how much you:
- paid for medical expenses
- claimed back from Medicare.
You need to adjust the information provided by Medicare to include additional medical expenses you may have incurred which were not reported to, or claimable through, Medicare.
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Private health insurance policy details
To assist in the completion of item M2 - Medicare levy surcharge, registered health insurers provide you with the following information:
- health insurer ID
- membership number
- your periods of cover
- the type of cover you have.
Details provided by the funds do not indicate whether your cover extends to all dependants and family members. You need to ensure that you were all covered by an appropriate level of private patient hospital cover for the whole of 2011-12 before accepting the pre-filled information as correct.
Your Private health insurance policy details can be pre-filled to help complete item M2 - Medicare levy surcharge.
Question
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Details
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IT1
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Total reportable fringe benefit amounts
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Reported by:
employers
Includes:
details from the:
- PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
- PAYG payment summary - foreign employment
- PAYG payment summary - business and personal services income
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IT2
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Reportable employer superannuation contributions
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Reported by:
employers
Includes:
details from the:
- PAYG payment summary - individual non-business
- PAYG payment summary - foreign employment
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IT3
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Tax-free government pensions
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Reported by:
- Centrelink
- Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA)
- Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)
Includes:
tax-free pensions
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A message will display if you received an emergency relief payment and may be eligible for flood levy exemption. This information is reported to us by Centrelink.
You generally have to make a compulsory repayment on your HELP or SFSS debt if your income in this year's return is above the minimum repayment threshold. The repayment is calculated as part of your income tax assessment.
The pre-filling service can download the repayable balance amount of your HELP and SFSS debt so that e-tax can provide you with a more accurate tax estimate.
E-tax displays PAYG income tax instalment details as 'information only' data.
You don't need to show these amounts anywhere on your tax return. The amounts are a guide to assist you in the calculation of your refund or amount of tax payable.
E-tax displays reminders and advisory messages where you have either:
- omitted to include certain information
- received certain letters from us throughout the year, such as letters regarding deductions you claimed on your last tax return.
Advisory messages use current year information reported by third parties as reminders of:
- rental properties sold or transferred that may be subject to capital gains tax
- share investments that may be affected by a class ruling, a share buyback, or disposed of and subject to capital gains tax.
Reminders rely on the information you entered on your previous year's tax return to provide:
- details of income sources declared on your 2011 tax return that may need to be declared again; for example
- partnership and trust income
- personal services income
- net income or loss from a business
- net capital losses carried forward
- foreign source income
- foreign entities
- rental property address details from your 2010-11 rental property schedule.
Alerts service
The alerts service is available in e-tax from 1 July until 31 October.
Receive free email or SMS messages from us when new or updated information becomes available for you to pre-fill to your e-tax return.
The pre-filling alerts service is only available in e-tax, and you need your e-tax password to access the subscription service. If you have lost your password you will need to obtain a new one.
You must lodge your tax return by 31 October, even if you have subscribed to the alerts service or you are still waiting on some of your information for pre-filling purposes.
Failure to lodge your tax return by this date means you may be subject to a failure to lodge on time penalty.
How to subscribe or unsubscribe
To…
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You can select…
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subscribe to the alerts service
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the Alerts service button below the Navigator bar in e-tax, then:
- enter your e-tax password
- choose how you want to receive your alert messages
- enter your details.
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update your alerts subscription details
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the Alerts service button below the Navigator bar in e-tax, then:
- enter your e-tax password
- update your details or change your option to receive your alerts by email or SMS.
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unsubscribe from the alerts service
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one of the following
- reply STOP to your SMS alert
- select the 'Unsubscribe' hyperlink in your email alert
- select the Alerts service button below the Navigator bar in e-tax, then
- enter your e-tax password
- choose to unsubscribe from the service.
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You are automatically unsubscribed from the alerts service 48 to 72 hours after lodging your e-tax return online.
Known issues
Calculating and claiming ATO interest
If you think our interest figures downloaded via the pre-filling service are not correct, the following information may help you.
How it occurs
The pre-filling service provides details for:
- Item 10 - Gross interest (pre-filled to the correct label)
- Item 24 (label Y) - Other income (amount provided as information only)
- Item D10 - Cost of managing tax affairs (amount provided as information only).
The figures provided for items 24 and D10 are accurate in ordinary circumstances. However, if any of the following scenarios apply you may need to seek further advice.
- You have lodged prior year tax returns late.
- You have been released from paying an amount of interest due to hardship.
- Our account activity has affected interest amounts in prior income tax years (including revisions to effective dates; debit adjustments to remissions; cancellations).
- You are a non-resident.
- You are a small business entity taxpayer and continue to use the simplified tax system accounting method.
What you need to do
You will need to check your records, including previous years' tax returns, to determine the amount of interest that you must declare as income at item 24, or may claim as a deduction at item D10.
For further guidance in calculating the correct amounts you should include, you can phone us on 13 28 61.
Children's savings account interest pre-filling
If you have noticed instances where the interest from non-formal trust accounts, such as your children's savings accounts, are being included in your pre-filling information, the following may help you.
How it occurs
Non-formal trust accounts with entity type 'I' (for individuals) are included for the pre-filling service. Regardless of whether your TFN is attached to the account or not, if your name forms part of the account name, the record may be matched to you. We provide this income to allow you to work out if the income needs to be declared in your e-tax return or not.
What you should do
To help you decide if the income needs to be included in your e-tax return, refer to Children's savings accounts.
Super fund and trust account interest pre-filling
If you have noticed an amount of investment income that belongs to a linked non-individual, such as a super or trust fund, the following information may help you.
How it occurs
This normally occurs if the entity's investment account has been established incorrectly. The interest or dividend income from these accounts will be pre-filled to your record if the linked entity account has been established with either of the following:
- your individual personal TFN quoted
- an entity type 'I', which is for an individual account.
What you should do
To prevent these records showing in the future, you should contact your financial institution to ensure the correct:
- TFN is quoted on the account
- entity type is listed on the account; for example, the correct entity type for a formal trust account is 'T' and for super accounts is 'S'.
Duplicated records
Refer to the following information to find out why duplicate information may appear on your e-tax return.
If…
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You should…
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you have used both the pre-filling service and the rollover function in e-tax, some information may overlap resulting in duplicate information appearing.
Refer to the 'source' column in e-tax, listed beside the information, to see whether it has been pre-filled or rolled over.
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delete the duplicate record.
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you have manually entered information into e-tax and used the pre-filling service, the pre-filling service may duplicate the information you have already entered into your e-tax return.
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delete the duplicate record.
If there are differences between the information pre-filled and the information you have manually entered, you need to resolve the discrepancy with the organisation who supplied that information to us.
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neither of the above applies to you but you can see duplicate information appearing where both sources are listed as pre-filled data.
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delete the duplicate record and contact the organisation who supplied that information to us to resolve the matter.
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Last Modified: Friday, 31 May 2013
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