Here are some of our most frequently asked questions.
When you apply for finance, banks have limited ways to verify your income, so they often want a declaration or letter from your accountant stating that what you declare is accurate.
This often isn’t just to confirm income. We also get asked to sign off on things like:
This puts us in a difficult position, as most of the time, what the bank wants us to sign off on is a declaration that a future event will be true, and we can’t know:
In short, we are happy to sign off on “factual information” (basically historical data that we can verify). That your income last year was $X, that your YTD figures are $X, and so on.
But… we will need to do our investigations. We will take our time to ensure that what we are signing off on is accurate.
Almost always, the bank’s template will not be acceptable because their templates are designed to push the risk of you not paying your loan onto us. Their business is to take a risk in loaning money – they charge fees and interest to compensate them for taking that risk – as you can hopefully understand, it’s not acceptable for the bank to push any of that risk onto us.
If the bank provides you with their own document, we can use that as a basis, but will update the wording as we see fit to mitigate the risk to our business. We cannot allow our licenses, reputation, qualifications, and family livelihoods to be at risk.
If you would like to go ahead with engaging our services to create an Accountant Declaration for you, please contact our Receptionist on 03 51749111 and ask for the ‘Accountants declaration form engagement letter’ to be sent to you for a full list of terms and conditions.
No you don’t.
We have a different process this tax season for both booking appointments and submitting documents.
Visit Tax Return Registration page to confirm you are ‘Tax Ready’ and register to have your tax return completed by us.
Once you have successfully registered you will be sent the link to our annual engagement letter and intake form. This new procedure is intended to streamline our processes by gathering relevant information that will give us a head start in preparing your return. It also provides a transparent costing of our services, so you know what you are paying for up front.
When you have signed and submitted the form, including uploading any required documentation online, your job will be created for the accountant and they will be in touch with you if they have any questions, or when your return is complete.
You will then receive your return to check and sign.
When the signed documents are received the accountant will lodge your return.
Then it’s in the ATO’s hands!
Their standard processing time for refunds is 14 business days. Each year the ATO will hold back a random selection of returns to complete manual calculations and ensure their internal systems are working. If we receive notice your return has been held up we will advise you immediately and keep a track of the 14 days. If the return has not been processed by then we will follow up with the ATO regularly until they have completed it.
For information regarding the documents you may need to organise prior to completing the online tax intake form, please click here.
If you would like to make a tax return appointment, see our revised process here: How do I book an appointment?
We have a different process this year for both booking appointments and dropping off documents for this tax season:
Visit: Tax Return Registration to confirm you are ‘Tax Ready’ and register to have your tax return completed by us.
Once you have successfully registered you will be sent the link to our annual engagement letter and intake form. This new combined form is intended to streamline our processes by gathering relevant information that will give us a head start in preparing your return. It also provides a transparent costing of our services, so you know what you are paying for up front.
When you have signed and submitted the form, based on your selection, you will be sent a link to the accountant’s calendar to choose a time and date that suits you.
You will receive a confirmation of your booking details.
When your tax return appointment is completed, the accountant will lodge your return.
Then it’s in the ATO’s hands!
Their standard processing time for refunds is 14 business days. Each year the ATO will hold back a random selection of returns to complete manual calculations and ensure their internal systems are working. If we receive notice your return has been held up we will advise you immediately and keep a track of the 14 days. If the return has not been processed by then we will follow up with the ATO regularly until they have completed it.
For information regarding the documents you may need to organise prior to completing the online tax intake form, please click here.
Rescheduling or canceling appointments can be done via the link in your confirmation email or message, but it must be done no later than 4 hours prior to your appointment time. A non-attendance fee is charged if the notice is less than 4 hours.
If you cannot find your confirmation message, or in the event of an emergency that requires an appointment to be rescheduled/canceled after the 4-hour cut-off, please contact reception on 03 5174 9111.
The ATO’s service commitment for processing returns is usually up to 14 business days. If the ATO’s information differs from the tax return information, any refund will likely take longer to receive.
Each year, the ATO will randomly select a sample of returns to perform manual calculations and ensure their systems pick up all the correct information. This is not an audit. In these instances, it can take up to 30 calendar days. If your return is randomly selected, we will notify you that your refund will be delayed.
We cannot take any follow-up action until the 30 calendar days have passed. Once the 30-day timeline has passed, we can call to chase up the status of your return. If we receive the notification that your return has been completed prior to the 30 days, we will follow our usual process to get your refund to you as soon as it is transferred to us.
Your Tax File Number can be found on documents you have received from the ATO. We are working hard to ensure that all our clients have a communication from the ATO (like a Notice of Assessment) available to them through their secure client portal.
It is our preferred method to share sensitive information with you as this mitigates opportunities for identity thieves and scammers.
If you have logged into your client portal and have been unable to find a document available, please feel free to send a message through the portal, email, or call, and we will provide one for you.
We do not recommend booking an appointment until you have received your Private Health Insurance Statement, as your return can’t be lodged until we have this information. If you feel there is a delay in receiving your Private Health Insurance Statement, please follow up with your Private Health Insurance provider.
Scammers and strict privacy regulations surrounding sharing documents with sensitive information have made assisting with these inquiries harder than ever. The solution we have found is using our secure client portal (it has the same level of security as some of the large streaming platforms).
When a document is requested, we can upload this to your client portal, and you will receive a notification it is there for you to view or download. From there, you can choose to email it to your contact at the company you are applying through or print them a hard copy.
It takes some time at the beginning of the new financial year for Centrelink to compile and lodge its payment information with the ATO. Before they complete this, we do not have access to accurate records to complete your return. We recommend booking an appointment from the second week of July onward to ensure Centrelink has completed its processes.
Unfortunately, we do not receive a notification when Centrelink updates the ATO with an individual’s information. And we do not have the staffing resources to keep checking for individual clients during the busy period.
Here is a link to Services Australia that outlines what you need to do to get your Centrelink payment summary updates: https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/centrelink-payment-summary
The ATO is not processing any returns in the first half of July, so even though we understand you are eager to get your return done and your refund in your bank, you will still have a wait if you register early in July.
Other possible delays will be if you are on Centrelink payments or have Private Health Insurance (PHI) cover. Centrelink does not typically provide its information to the ATO before mid-July.
Private Health Insurance providers send out their statements at different times throughout July and sometimes even into the following months. If you have cover, we cannot complete your return without your PHI statement. This means if you register early to get it done, you will still have a wait for your refund.
We highly recommend waiting until you have all documents required for your return before registering to have your tax returned prepared, so we can make the process as smooth as possible.
For a comprehensive guide on what to bring to your appointment see: Preparing for Your Tax Return.
Our calendar is open Monday, 10th July. If you ‘Tax Ready’ and have all your necessary documents in order, you’re welcome to register to have your tax return prepared by us!
Click here to register.
What you need to bring to your appointment with your tax agent depends on your circumstances. Do you have a straightforward return, or do you own property and investments? Do you run a business?
Please click on this link for a comprehensive list of items your agent may require to prepare your tax return: Preparing for Your Tax Return.
If you are an employee of one or more employers who submit your income information to the ATO on your behalf and you only have some simple deductions to claim, then that would require a simple tax return.
People who only receive government payments (age pension, youth allowance, etc) will also generally require a simple tax return.
Things get a little more complicated when you have:
If any of these apply, then more work is required by your accountant and therefore it will not be considered as a simple tax return.
If there are extensive work-related deductions, these too will push the preparation of a tax return beyond what is a simple tax return.
When an individual has exceeded at least one of the superannuation contribution caps for the financial year, this means they may have to pay excess concessional contributions tax.
If this is the case, the ATO will send a notification letter. This allows the individual to carefully check if the details of the excess superannuation contributions are correct and dispute them if they are not.
When completing your tax return, this information is unavailable to the tax agent. As such, the agent cannot advise whether you will be liable for any excess contributions tax. This calculation is made only after the lodgement of your tax return and when your superannuation fund reports contributions information to the ATO. Any excess concessional contributions assessment may be raised many months after the lodgement of your tax return.
Please see this video for a comprehensive answer regarding when you can apply for the tax-free threshold:
Pay As You Go (PAYG) instalments are, unfortunately, something we have little control over. They are automatically triggered when an individual meets a certain set of criteria within the ATO’s system.
When an individual had a tax payable result the previous year, the ATO uses that information to calculate the approximate tax liability for the following year. If their projected liability is deemed large enough, the amount is divided into instalments to be paid off over the year.
The actual tax liability is worked out at the end of the income year when the accountant prepares the tax return. PAYG instalments that have been paid are credited against the tax assessment to determine if the individual owes more tax or is owed a refund of some of the paid instalments.
The easiest way to manage your PAYG instalments is by using the ATO’s online services. You can view, lodge, pay, vary and manage all your PAYG instalment obligations in one place. All you need is a myGov account linked to the ATO. If you don’t have a myGov account linked to the ATO, you can create one at ato.gov.au/onlineservices
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) have recently made changes to how client identification is verified. Tax and BAS agents now have a responsibility to confirm the identity of their clients.
Starting in the second half of 2022, new proof of identity (PoI) requirements became mandatory.
Yes. In the case of non-individuals, the requirement for non-individuals is that the associated individuals must prove their ID. We are now obligated to verify the identities of all our clients. Be assured that we do not retain your physical or electronic copies of IDs. Providing ID is for verification purposes only.
You don’t need to take any specific action regarding the implementation of these rules. However, there might be instances where we will request different identity documents from you. From now on, all clients must submit their identity documents when requested.
These measures aim to make the process of identifying our clients more secure and reliable while ensuring compliance with government rules. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with these requirements and understand that they have been put in place to protect your interests. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We are here to assist you.
RESOURCE: From the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) – Information for Clients: Proof of Identity Checks for Client Verification.
We appreciate the loyalty of our long-term clients. An engagement letter is written confirmation you have engaged us to be your tax agents and gives us the authority to access your information from the ATO for the relevant financial year.
Your engagement letter clearly outlines what services you can expect us to provide for that financial year. This is especially advantageous for business clients, who can choose from a range of supportive services we offer, such as bookkeeping, or preparing Activity Statements. We can adjust our scope of service according to your current needs.
Can’t find the answer you are looking for? Feel free to contact our office.