What happens when I lodge overdue prior-year tax returns for a client?
Only current year returns are included in your lodgment program performance.
Prior years do not form part of the calculation.
Will my on-time lodgment performance be affected if I am assisting a taxpayer with overdue returns to get up to date?
If you take on new clients with overdue prior year returns, your on-time lodgment performance will only be affected if you lodge the current year’s return after the due date or deferred date.
To give you time to bring their lodgments up to date without affecting your lodgment performance, you can request a new or re-engaged client lodgment deferral. If granted, this will provide you with:
- a lodgment deferral for their current year income tax return
- suspension of compliance action for their prior year returns.
To request this type of deferral, select 'New or re-engaged client' as the deferral reason when using the lodgment deferral function in Online services for agents.
What happens if I remove a client from my client list after I have lodged their current year tax return on time?
This will still count towards your on-time performance.
If I take on a new client who has already lodged their current year tax return on time, will this count towards my total number of returns lodged on time?
If the new client lodged their current year tax return with another tax agent, the lodgment will be counted towards that agent's performance figure.
Why is the ATO continuing to contact me for clients I have previously removed from my client list?
This can occur when you have removed a client from your client list, but your registered agent number is still attached to one of the client’s roles, or if the client's address was not updated before you removed them from your client list.
It's also important to note that lodging a final return or completing a non-lodgment advice does not remove a client from your list.
You need to remove clients through either:
- Online services for agents – Remove client
- Practitioner lodgment service – Client update
Before you remove a client, you must remove your contact details from all your client's roles. This includes removing your email, phone numbers, business and postal addresses, financial institution account details, and your name from authorised contacts. This will avoid unnecessary contact from us about previous clients.
If you're unable to remove a client, see Client list has clients you no longer represent for details on how to request a bulk deletion.
Why are return not necessary (RNN) or further return not necessary (FRNN) clients calculated as lodged on-time in my lodgment performance percentage?
When you submit a current year non-lodgment advice, including further returns not necessary (FRNN) or return not necessary (RNN) advice, we do not expect a lodgment for that return. We will use this information when calculating your on-time lodgment performance.
If there is no requirement to keep clients with a 'further return not necessary indicator' on your client list, then you should remove the client from your client list.
What if I have recently transferred my client base?
All registered agents with an active client list will be measured and receive a performance summary. This includes newly registered agents or registered agent numbers (RANs) undergoing client base transfers.
We understand that your performance may be affected while transferring clients between RANs and will take this into account prior to applying any support strategies.