We thought it might be of interest to clients as to how the ATO sets deadlines for us to lodge our client’s tax returns.
The ATO categorise clients and sets lodgement deadlines dates as follows:
31 October All clients with outstanding prior year lodgements do not receive an extension
1 December Large/medium tax payers have to pay their tax liability by today
15 January As long as the liability is paid on time as above, lodgement of the tax return is due today
28 February All new self managed super fund tax returns and payment of tax are due today
31 March Entities with total income of $2M or more in the previous year unless required earlier as per above
15 May All remaining tax returns are due for lodgement today. Company and super fund tax liability also due to be paid by today
Obviously we prefer to have work done consistently throughout the year to spread the workload and at times have to prioritise based on the above deadlines.
There are also occasions when clients require their financial records for reasons other than the ATO requirement e.g. if they have to lodge financials with ASIC or are applying for finance.
We are also able to apply for extensions of time to lodge tax returns past their due dates and these are generally granted but the ATO usually requires that the tax liability is paid by the due date.
