Yahoo Finance Centrelink recipients urged to ‘wait’ to lodge tax return
Services Australia said Centrelink recipients should hold off lodging a tax return on July 1.
Aussies on Centrelink payments have been told to wait before lodging their tax returns, come July 1.
Services Australia said payment summaries - which are needed by the tax office - would start to be provided to Centrelink recipients around early July.
"You might need it for your tax return. It shows taxable and non-taxable payments you got from us this tax year," Services Australia said.
"Some payments from us won't show on your payment summary. But you might need to tell the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) about them."
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Services Australia urged Aussies to check:
If their payment will show on the payment summary or not
What payments to report or not to report in their tax return
The self-service options they can use to access it
What happens if there are payment changes
Pandemic and disaster payments are taxable
Aussies who received the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment, High-Risk Settings Pandemic Payment and the Disaster Recovery Allowance top-up will need to report those to the ATO as they are taxable, but will not show up on the Services Australia payment summary.
However, those who received the Australian government Disaster Recovery Payment do not need to report it to the ATO.
Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen told 7 News that not all Centrelink customers needed to lodge tax returns.
"If [those on the age pension] are getting other money from investments, they may have to pay tax. And, of course, we need people to lodge their tax returns to balance Family Tax Benefit and Childcare Subsidy,” Jongen said.
"But my number one tip is, if you can possibly afford to wait until late July, then do that, because what happens is all of the information about your income from employers, from investments, Services Australia is pre-populated into your tax return.
"And all you need to do then is simply tick it off and you can lodge your tax return."
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