You may receive a statement of account (SOA) from us. An SOA provides a list of payments and transactions processed on your account during the statement period, and shows the current account balance and any overdue amounts.
When will I receive an SOA?
You may receive an SOA if there is a change to your account balance, for example:
- if you get credit interest on your account - for example, interest on early payment
- if you pay your tax late and incur general interest charge
- if you incur a penalty - for example, a penalty for failing to lodge on time
- if a credit on your account is offset to another amount you owe (either another tax debt or a debt you have with other government agencies) - for example, a Centrelink debt.
In some cases, a notice of assessment (NOA) or penalty notice will accompany your SOA. If you receive an SOA, it will:
- show the final amount we are refunding to you or the amount you have to pay us
- have attached your refund cheque or, if you owe tax, your payment advice.
Why are the amounts on my NOA and SOA different?
If you receive both an NOA and an SOA, you should refer to the SOA for the final amount you have to pay or we are refunding. This is because the SOA represents information related to your income tax account as a whole and includes all transactions related to income tax. The NOA represents information related to a particular assessment and what that assessment comprises.
The SOA provides details of other transactions that may have resulted from our processing of your income tax return. Examples of these transactions include:
- entitlement to credit interest because of delays in processing your assessment
- other amounts being payable to us or another government agency
- a penalty or debit interest being incurred - for example, general interest charge
- having an account opening balance that is not zero dollars ($0.00).
Format of the SOA
The following images show how the information on each page appears.
Page 1
1. SOA header
The header of the SOA contains details identifying the client and the period the statement is for. There is also a unique reference number. You will find this next to 'Our reference' towards the top of the statement.
We include our web address and phone number should you need more information or help.
2. Overdue amount
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This section appears on the SOA if the account is in debit unless:
- you have a payment arrangement with us
- you are disputing a debt with us.
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The 'Overdue amount' is the amount for which a payment is late. The overdue amount is based on the effective date (or due date) of each transaction processed on the account.
There will be cases where transactions are processed on your account, which may or may not have been processed during the statement period but are not yet due. These amounts will appear in the 'Amounts not yet due'. The overdue amount is rounded down to the nearest five cents.
General interest charge may accrue on the overdue amount until it is paid in full.
3. Amounts not yet due
This is the total of other amounts on your account which have an effective/due date later than the end of the statement period. To determine when amounts are due you will need to refer to the 'effective date' column in the transaction list. The 'Amounts not yet due' may match an amount on your transaction listing or it could be made up of several 'not yet due' amounts processed on your account.
If you owe money to us, it will be a debit amount (DR).
The closing balance may be $0.00.
It may also be different to the 'Overdue amount' as explained above.
4. Statement message
In some cases a message indicating why we are sending the SOA is included here. For example, that the SOA provides supplementary information to the NOA.
5. Transaction list
This section provides details of all the transactions processed on your account for the statement period. If there are other amounts due and payable on your account at the start date of the SOA, we will include these amounts in the opening balance amount.
The process date is the date we processed a particular transaction.
The effective date is the date we add an amount into the account balance for the purpose of calculating general interest charge. For debit transactions the effective date is the due date for payment. For credit transactions it is the date that the amount became available.
A debit amount is an amount debited to your account such as a penalty, debit assessment or refund.
A credit is an amount credited to your account such as credit interest, a credit assessment or payment.
The closing balance may be a credit amount (CR), or if you owe money, it will be a debit amount (DR). The closing balance may also be $0.00.
If the transactions in the list do not fit on page 1 of the SOA they will continue on page 3 and subsequent pages as required.
6. Payment slip, refund cheque or details of electronic funds transfer
The SOA may be issued with a payment slip, refund cheque or details of electronic funds transfer (EFT).
Page 2
7. Important information about your statement
This section provides tailored information and an explanation of terms depending on what appears on the SOA.
8. Methods of payment
This section provides an explanation of the available methods of payment.
Page 3
9. Transaction list
If the transactions in the list do not fit on page 1 of the SOA then they will carry over to page 3 and subsequent pages, depending on how many transactions we process during the statement period.
If the transaction list does carry over to page 3 a header will detail your name, identifier and the statement number.
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For more information, refer to:
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Last Modified: Tuesday, 29 June 2010