The Tax Office has recently upgraded their computer system and there are significant delays processing income tax returns. 

If you lodged your return after 4 January 2010 then we have not received your assessment notice – or tax refund – yet!

The ATO have started processing income tax returns again and they hope to have cleared backlog of tax assessment notices – and tax refunds – before the end of the month.

For more information – click here to read the ATO Press Release – or contact us via telephone: 08 9246 9055.

From the ATO Press Release:

We have processed the backlog of activity statements and are also up-to-date with issuing of activity statement refunds.

We have started processing income tax returns in the new system in smaller volumes, with our staff checking the outcomes. Some taxpayers will soon receive notices of assessment and refunds.

The numbers will gradually increase as we build up to our normal processing levels. We plan to clear the income tax returns backlog by the end of February.

Payments by taxpayers during the shutdown period have been processed and recorded on their accounts…

If we take more than 30 days after your income tax return is lodged to issue a notice of assessment and that assessment entitles you to a refund of tax, we will pay interest.

If you lodge a tax return without all the required information, the 30-day period starts from the date we receive all the information. Where such interest is payable, you do not need to ask for it – we automatically pay it or apply it to any debt on your account.

The taxpayer information our enquiry staff and portal users access will not be fully up-to-date until processing returns to normal levels.

It may also take us a little longer to answer some enquiries at this time, as our staff get used to the new income tax processing system.

If you have any questions then please contact us on 9246 9055.

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