The majority of taxpayers can now lodge their tax return as more than 80 million pieces of information are available in pre-fill.
Assistant Commissioner Tim Loh explained "Much of the information we collect from employers, banks, private health insurers, share registries and other institutions, is now ready to go in your tax return. If you also have all the information you need to manually include, then you have the green light to lodge."
While having this data ready to go cuts down time, taxpayers still need to check that their details are accurate and ensure any other information that hasn't been pre-filled, is manually added. For example, income from rentals, side hustles and the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment from Services Australia, will need to be manually added.
Employers will provide an income statement or payment summary that shows the amounts received and the tax withheld. It is also important to ensure that income statements are marked as 'Tax ready' by employers before lodging.
If taxpayers had more than one employer during the year, they will have more than one income statement or payment summary. If the information on an income statement or payment summary is incorrect, the employee should contact their employer as the employer should be able to correct any errors.
"For those who use a registered tax agent, your agent will have access to your information. But even if you use a tax agent, remember that you are still on the hook to ensure that the information is correct," Mr Loh said.
