Easier personal tax returns - 2008

Some of you may or may not be aware but, from the 2007-8 income year, taxpayers will have the option of using pre-populated online tax returns which will be populated with information on:

• salary, wages and allowances, where the employer has
electronically lodged the employee’s payment summary with the ATO;
• dividend and interest income and distributions from managed funds;
• payments from Centrelink, the Department of Education, Science and Training and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs;
• Medicare out-of-pocket expenses and private health insurance information; and
• Higher Education Contribution Scheme and Higher Education Loan Programme details.

The information will populate the return forms progressively, and should be complete by mid-August each year. Both taxpayers and tax agents will be able to use the returns.

Taxpayers with other sources of income, such as rental income, capital gains or foreign-source income, will need to add this information to their pre-filled return, as will taxpayers whose employer has not lodged their payment summary electronically with the ATO.

One would hope that this will significantly reduce the audit risk of undeclaring interest and dividend income.

NickM