The Australian Taxation Office web site has been operating for some years and the ATO has constantly strived to improve the site’s services.
Now it is possible to lodge a tax return over the Internet using e-tax.
E-tax director John McCarthy said e-tax was an ‘intelligent’ TaxPack which “asks the relevant questions, does the calculations and gives you immediate access to helpful tax information”.
The benefit of completing tax return electronically is that taxpayers receive any refund a lot sooner.
The ATO anticipates that refunds will issue within 14 days of lodgement of the tax return.
Additionally, e-tax does error checks, like picking up typing errors and incomplete questions, and provides basic tax tips such as the need to keep records if expenditure claims exceed $300.
The e-tax system uses an interview approach and guides the user, based on their answers, to the appropriate questions so as to complete the return in the shortest possible time.
It will also calculate a liability or refund.
There is no charge to lodge a return via e-tax apart from normal ISP charges which apply to the user’s Internet connection.
E-tax can be accessed from the ATO website at www.ato.gov.au, from www.telstra.com/money and www.myfinance.com.au.
Another attraction of e-tax is that it will allow Australians living overseas and those with mobility difficulties to lodge their returns more easily.
