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We have more time to notify of retained BAS refunds

The period in which we need to notify you of our decision to retain a BAS refund has increased from 14 to 30 days.

Published 3 October 2025

If your business activity statement (BAS) was lodged on or after 1 July 2025, we have up to 30 days to notify you if we decide to retain your BAS refund for further verification. 

The 30-day period will apply to BAS refunds identified as high risk. This will give us extra time to verify the information reported in a BAS prior to releasing the refund, especially during periods of high-volume fraud events.

We’ll release these BAS refunds on day 31 if we don’t notify you within this period.

This change won't affect businesses who expect a legitimate refund.

We’ll continue to process BAS refunds as quickly as possible and pay interest for any legitimate refunds we retain for over 14 days.

Remember to keep accurate and complete records to support your claims. This will help speed up the refund process if we need to contact you to verify information.

For more information, see checking refunds.

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