Delayed refund interest

Delayed refund interest (DRI) is interest we pay on certain refund amounts where we have not made payment of the refund within 14 days. Delayed refund interest you receive is assessable income, and you must include it in your tax return.

On this page

• When we pay delayed refund interest
• How we calculate DRI
• How we treat DRI

When we pay delayed refund interest

We will pay DRI if we do not pay the following types of refunds within 14 days:

• a surplus on a running balance account (RBA) reflecting the allocation of a business activity statement amount to the RBA (a BAS amount is any credit or debt that arises directly under the BAS provisions, which include goods and services tax (GST), wine equalisation tax, luxury car tax, PAYG withholding, PAYG instalments, and instalments of fringe benefits tax.)
• a surplus on a RBA arising from the remission of a penalty that relates to a BAS amount, that you requested to be remitted
• a surplus on a RBA that you requested to be refunded that reflects a voluntary payment made for an anticipated tax debt under a BAS provision.

Delayed refund interest will start accruing 14 days after you:

• lodge all outstanding activity statements with all required information
• give us all the information necessary for your activity statements to be processed
• give us the financial institution account details where we can pay the refund.

How we calculate DRI

We will automatically calculate DRI amounts for you and pay you the DRI with your delayed refund. The interest can be used to offset another tax debt you have with us.

You can check the rates we use to calculate your delayed refund interest.

How we treat DRI

Delayed refund interest is assessable income. Include any DRI in your tax return in the income year you receive it or the income year it offsets against another tax debt you had with us. Report the amount at Gross Interest.