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Search Suggestion:

Your guide to ATO searching

Use these tips to help you find content on our website quickly and easily.

Last updated 6 November 2023

Search tips

  • Keep it simple – don't include common words such as ‘the’ and ‘it’ in your search.
  • One word says it all – variants of many words are automatically included in your search results. For example, a search for 'apply' will return results containing 'applies', 'applying' and 'application'.
  • You can use upper or lower case – search is not case sensitive.
  • General terms return general information – searching for ‘tax’ will give you more results than searching for ‘capital gains tax’.
  • Specific terms return specific information – searching for 'capital gains tax' will give you fewer results than searching for 'tax'.
  • Choose words carefully – if you’re looking to invest in real estate, try different searches, like ‘buy a house’, ‘rental property’ or ‘investment property’.
  • Look for search suggestions in the drop down box – as you enter your search term, similar popular words and phrases will be suggested.
  • Spelling – make sure you have spelt all search terms correctly. Where we think there is a typo, you may see 'No results found' and you will be provided with an alternative result.

Other ways to search

  • Use a NAT number – we put NAT numbers on the bottom left of the first page of our print documents. You can type these directly into the search area to return a form or document. For example, you can search ‘NAT 0656’ for the Company tax return.
  • Use a Quick Code (QC) number – we put QC numbers on the bottom of each of our web pages. You can type these directly into the search area to return the page. For example, searching ‘QC 16161’ takes you to the Tax file number declaration page.
  • Sort your search results – use the sort option available to display search results by most relevant, newest or alphabetical order.
  • Filter results – use the filtering options available to filter the content by topic, year or type to further narrow the results to your specific needs.
  • Check the breadcrumbs – at the end of each search result is a ‘breadcrumb trail’ which can help you work out if the document is the one you need. For example, a search for ‘income tax return’ might give you a breadcrumb trail of ‘forms’, ‘business/yearly-reports-and-returns’ or ‘non-profit/tax-statements-and-returns’.
  • Searches related to – will display at the end of your displayed search results providing additional suggested searches.

Tell us what you think

If your search results don’t meet your needs, let us know using the Feedback tab on the right-hand side of the search results page.

if you're using a desktop computer or on the bottom left of the screen if you're using a mobile device.

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