Yahoo Finance Centrelink recipients: When you should lodge your tax return
Centrelink recipients have been advised to wait until mid-July to file their tax returns because that’s when Centrelink payment summaries will appear pre-filled in the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) online lodgement system.
Centrelink payment summaries show taxable and non-taxable payments you may have received from the Government throughout the year, and are often required to lodge your tax return.
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These summaries, which will be available from early July, provide the tax office information about your Centrelink payments and allowances, payment dates, taxable and tax-exempt amounts and tax-withheld amounts that show as deductions.
If you log into the myTax system via myGov and these details are not pre-filled, Services Australia says you can add this information manually from your payment summary.
You can access your payment summary via your online Centrelink account through myGov, or through the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.
You can also access payment summaries using the self-service terminals at a branch, or you can use the request-a-document prompt when you call Centrelink.
If there’s a change to your payment summary details, Services Australia will send you a letter to let you know - either through myGov, if you use it, or via post.
Some payments are NOT included on your summary
Services Australia also reminded welfare recipients to let the ATO know if you had received a Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment (PLDP).
These payments count as taxable income and won’t show up on payment summaries.
These payments will need to be reported to the ATO separately as part of your income tax return.
You will be able to work out how much PLDP you received by checking the letter via the Centrelink portal accessed via myGov, or the hard copy letter received in the post.
Services Australia has also advised that if you received Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Subsidy, you must include PLDP in your family income estimate as taxable income.
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