See How to do your taxes.
A tax return is a document that reports your income (from work, interest on bank accounts, investments, etc.) and expenses. You file tax returns annually in Australia, and doing so is called âlodgingâ your tax return. Itâs something you must do if you have had tax taken out of your pay over the tax year (spanning from July 1 to 30th of June).
- Your employer gives you an income statement that shows how much you earned and how much tax was deducted from your pay.
- You could pay a tax professional to help you do your tax return, or you can do it yourself with the help of tax software, like TaxSlayer.
Why do tax returns exist? To ensure that you pay the correct amount of tax, no more, no less. A number of things can happen over a financial year that changes how much tax you should be paying that the government cannot foresee:
- You lose your job midway through the year and donât find another, meaning you should receive money in your tax return.
- You inherited money.
- You took classes to improve your career skills. ⊠and so on.
In summary, the point of a tax return is to ensure that people can report their unique financial situation and be taxed fairly. Youâd get some money back if too much tax was withheld or if youâve made tax-deductible purchases, etc., and youâd pay more money to the ATO if there were other income sources over the year that the ATO didnât know about.