Just over a month deep into tax season and you’re not sure whether you should plunge in and lodge that return? Here are two scores of reasons you need to. We’ve grouped them so you shouldn’t have to wade through the whole list.
Australian Residents
If you were an Australian resident during 2010-11 here are 5 reasons you must lodge:
- You earned more than $6000 and you were a resident for the full year.
- You made more than $3334 and you were younger than 18 years old on June 30th, 2011 plus did not receive payment from work or services.
- You paid tax under the PAYG instalment system.
- You had tax withheld from payments made to you during the year.
- You received exempted income from a foreign source including employment, pension, super fund, interest, dividends, etc but also had $1 or more from other income.
Australian part-year or non-residents
If you were only in Australia for part of the 2011 financial year or were a non-resident for tax purposes you must lodge under the following conditions:
- You were a non-resident with taxable income of more than $1 from which no non-resident withholding tax was withheld.
- You arrived in Australia during the financial year with the intention of becoming a permanent resident and your income exceeded your pro-rated tax-free threshold based on the number of months you were employed in Australia. The monthly entitlement for 2010-11 is 1/2th of $6000 or $500.
Business owners and special professionals
Individuals who are carrying a business or earn income from certain specific activities must lodge under the following provisions:
- Business owners who have an Australian business number and are involved in business must lodge even if their earnings fall below the tax-free threshold of $6000.
- They must also lodge if their business made a loss, or if they are claiming a loss made in a previous year.
- Professionals covered by the income averaging provisions, such as the authors of literary, dramatic, performance, musical or other artistic works, along with inventors, production associates, and active sportspeople must also lodge a return.
Seniors
If you are a senior who was eligible for the senior Australian tax offset, you must lodge if your individual rebate income comes in above the following thresholds:
- $30,685 if you were single, separated, or widowed at any time during 2010-11.
- $29,600 if you had a spouse but either one of you lived in a nursing home or apart due to an illness.
- $26,680 if you and your spouse lived together for the whole financial year.
You must also lodge if you received an Australian superannuation lump sum payment during the year under the following circumstances:
- You were 60 or older and the payment included an untaxed element.
- You were under 60 years old and the payment included either a taxed or an untaxed element.
Recipients of Australian Government pension, allowance, or payment
In general, if you received some form of allowance or payment from the Australian Government you will have to lodge, even if you were not eligible for the senior Australian tax offset, but provided your rebate income falls above a certain threshold.
For example, if you received an Australian Government pension, allowance, or payment from Centrelink, you must lodge a return if your rebate income was more than:
- $29,670 if you were single, widowed, or separated at any time during the year.
- $28,636 if you had a spouse but either one of you lived in a nursing home or apart due to an illness.
- $24,156 if you lived with your spouse for the whole year.
Similarly, if you received an Australian government pension, allowance, or payment from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, you will have to lodge a return if your rebate income was above the following:
- $30,439 if you were single, widowed, or separated at any time during the year.
- $29,439 if you had a spouse but lived apart due to an illness or if either one of you lived in a nursing home.
- $24,810 if you lived with your spouse for the full financial year.
Finally, if you received an Australian Government allowance such as the Youth Allowance, Newstart, an Austudy or other taxable payment, you will have to lodge if:
- The total of the payments made to you exceeded $16,000.
Please see the full list of payments that apply at the ATO instructions page for question 5 of your tax return.
Pay as you go (PAYG) Tax payers
Employees who choose to pay their taxes throughout the year by suing PAYG withholding must lodge a return under the following conditions:
- They had a reportable fringe benefits amount listed on their individual non-business PAYG payment summary or their foreign employment PAYG payment summary.
- They had reportable superannuation contributions from their employer listed on their individual non-business, foreign employment, or business and personal services income PAYG payment summaries.
Remember that even if none of these conditions apply to you and you don’t need to lodge a return you still must complete a Non-Lodgment Advice and send it to the ATO. Note also that the list above is not exhaustive. Consult your tax professional for further details.
