The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has published the most common mistakes people make at tax time, suggesting taxpayers do their best to avoid them.
The common errors have been unveiled by Assistant Taxation Commissioner Karen Foat who said they ranged from honest mistakes to people deliberately over-claiming to increase their refund.
“A small amount of over-claiming by a large number of individuals adds up to billions of dollars, meaning that essential community services are missing out,” Ms Foat said.
“For example, incorrect work-related expense claims have been highlighted as one of the key drivers of the $8.7 billion tax gap generated by individuals not in business.”
She said the top four mistakes taxpayers should avoid were lodging before all prefill data was available or failing to report all their income;claiming the wrong thing; forgetting to keep receipts; and claiming for something they hadn’t paid for.
Ms Foat urged taxpayers to visit the ATO website for assistance on a range of topics, including linking myGovaccounts to the ATO, accessing payment summaries, and what could and should not be claimed.
“You can check the progress of your tax return by logging in to our online services at any time,” she said.
“The details of your refund can be found in the statement of account, including the effective date the refund will reach the nominated bank account.”
She said electronic returns (i.e. refunds) could take up to two weeks to process.
“There is no way to speed up this process, even if you call us,” Ms Foat said.
