Interest on overpayments

Where an overpayment of a tax liability occurs, you may receive interest on the overpaid amount. We automatically calculate and credit this to your bank account. Interest you receive on overpayments is assessable income, and you must include it in your tax return.

On this page

• When we pay interest on overpayments
• How we calculate IOP

When we pay interest on overpayments

We will pay interest on overpayments (IOP) if any of the following occurs:

• We take 30 days or more after you lodge your tax return to issue a notice of assessment if that assessment results in a refund of tax – the 30 day period starts from the date we receive all the required information.
• You claim certain credits after an assessment has been made because the assessable amount should be reported in a different income year.
• Your assessment is amended after you paid it and the amendment reduces your tax liability.
• You request a refund of all or part of a payment you made to    
  • an income tax account
  • certain income tax penalties such as those we impose for making a false or misleading statement
  • a compulsory Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP), VET Student Loan (VSL), Student Start-up Loan (SSL) or Trade Support Loan (TSL)repayment amount
  • a Student Financial Supplement Scheme assessment debt.
• You request a remission of certain interest amounts you have paid and we refund it to you 30 days or more after you made the request, such as:
  • general interest charge (GIC)
  • shortfall interest charge (SIC).

How we calculate IOP

We automatically calculate IOP amounts for you and pay you the interest amount with your overpayment. If you have outstanding tax or super debts, we may offset these credits against those debts.

The IOP will go directly to the bank account you nominate, make sure your financial institution details are up to date.

You can check the rates we use to calculate credit interest for overpayments.