In April, we reminded trustees about the importance of lodging trust tax returns on time and encouraged those who need help to contact us early.
If you're a trustee, lodging on time is an important part of meeting your tax obligations. It also helps beneficiaries complete their own tax affairs and allows us to better understand trust arrangements.
Here are 3 reasons to prioritise lodging your trust tax return on time.
1. It helps beneficiaries lodge correctly
When you lodge your trust tax return on time and provide accurate beneficiary information, it helps beneficiaries report their trust income correctly.
From Tax Time 2026, we've extended pre-fill for individual beneficiaries to include trust lodgment data. This means timely lodgment can help individual beneficiaries benefit from pre-filled trust income in their returns.
It also helps beneficiaries when you:
- confirm beneficiary TFNs and details are accurate before lodging
- lodge on time so beneficiary information is available sooner
- You can find more information about the new TFN reporting obligations that commenced on 1 July 2026 for trustees on our website.
2. It helps keep your tax affairs on track
Lodging your trust tax return on time is a critical step in keeping your tax affairs on track. A complete and accurately prepared return provides confidence that you've:
- correctly reported the trust's tax affairs
- appropriately disclosed beneficiary entitlements.
Good record keeping and accurate reporting reduce the risk of errors that may require amendments to trust and beneficiary tax returns later.
If information is missing, inaccurate or reported in the wrong labels, we may need to make further enquiries to understand the trust's circumstances. Taking the time to get it right the first time can help avoid unnecessary compliance activity, costs and delays.
3. It helps you avoid penalties and prosecution
If you don't lodge on time, or at all:
- you’re choosing to pay late lodgment penalties – these can be substantial and are completely avoidable
- we may take progressive steps to prompt lodgment – this can escalate to more serious compliance action when engagement doesn't resolve the issue, including referral for prosecution, which is a serious step and may result in a criminal conviction.
Assistant Commissioner Jenny Lin advises "Timely and accurate lodgment can help trustees reduce the likelihood of unnecessary compliance activity. We'll take firmer action against trustees who repeatedly fail to lodge, which may include referring them for prosecution."
Help is available
We'd rather work with you to get your obligations right. If you can't lodge by the due date, contact us as early as possible. This helps us understand your circumstances and consider what support may be appropriate. Waiting until after the due date limits the options we have available to help.
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