4 May 2014

Simpler tax returns

The Coalition will introduce new and simpler tax returns that will allow people to lodge their tax return through a smartphone, tablet or computer using their web browser.

From 1 July, the Australian Taxation Office will provide an online and substantially pre-prepared tax return for people without complex tax affairs.

The Government’s new MyTax will reduce the time needed to prepare and lodge an income tax return.

Millions of taxpayers will only need to review or change prefilled information before lodging their return. The ATO will prefill tax returns with information provided by other organisations such as banks and employers. 

MyTax will have some key differences to the current service. It is fully online rather than requiring a software download and installation, it is a more contemporary design, it is available on mobile devices and it automatically pre-fills information.

Taxpayers will be able to use MyTax if:

  • they were an Australian resident for the financial year;
  • they have income only from salary, wages, allowances, bank interest, dividends and/or Australian government payments;
  • their only deductions are for work-related expenses, expenses related to interest or dividend income, donations and/or the costs of managing their tax affairs; and
  • the only offsets they want to claim are the senior and pensioner tax offset and/or zone and overseas forces tax offset.

Taxpayers will receive an SMS or email from the ATO advising that MyTax may be right for them.

Taxpayers are ineligible to use MyTax if they have:

  • business income or losses
  • rental properties
  • partnerships or trusts, including managed investment trusts
  • capital gains or losses
  • foreign income
  • lump sum payments
  • employee share schemes
  • superannuation income streams and superannuation lump sum payments.