Delays in ATO processing Tax Returns

Delays in ATO Processing of Tax Returns

The Tax Office will close during the Christmas-New Year holiday period.

Its return and form processing will be suspended from 3pm AEDT Friday 21 December 2012 until 9am AEDT Wednesday 2 January 2013. As a result, returns lodged from mid-December to early January will take longer than usual to process.

The Tax Office recommends lodging tax returns or other forms electronically by 6 December 2012 to increase the likelihood of receiving the notice of assessment and refunds before the shutdown period.

Further:

For returns lodged electronically between 7 December and 21 December, refunds are expected to issue from Wednesday 2 January 2013.

For returns lodged from 22 December, refunds will start to issue from 14 January 2013.

The Tax Office has published the below timeline outlining the key dates.

Checking information

As part of routine processing, some returns will take longer to process.

This includes returns where:

the Tax Office requires more information or needs to cross-check data with Centrelink or the Child Support Program
it is a complex tax return and requires a large amount of manual checking, or
it is identified as potentially including overstated or fraudulent claims.

The Tax Office advises that the best way to receive the assessment as soon as possible is to double check that all information is correct before lodging.

Common errors include:

forgetting to include any name or address change from a previous year's return
forgetting to include date of birth
supplying incorrect bank account details
forgetting to include interest from a bank account or income from a previous job, and
putting information in the wrong part of the return.

Refunds

The Tax Office advises that the fastest, most secure way for a taxpayer to receive their refund is to have it sent directly to their bank account using electronic funds transfer (EFT).