We are authorised by the Taxation Administration Act 1953 to ask for your tax file number (TFN). We will use your TFN to identify you in our records. It is not an offence not to provide your TFN but if you don't your application may take longer to process and have extra tax withheld.
We are also authorised to ask for other information on the Medicare levy variation declaration form under one or more of the following Acts:
- Income Tax Assessment Act 1936
- Income Tax Assessment Act 1997
- Higher Education Funding Act 1988
- Higher Education Support Act 2003
- Social Security Act 1991
- Student Assistance Act 1973
- Taxation Administration Act 1953.
We need this information to help us to administer tax law. If the information is not collected, there could be a delay in processing your form.
Where authorised by law, we may give this information to other government departments and agencies, including:
- Department of Education
- Department of Employment
- Services Australia
- Department of Social Services
- Department of Veterans' Affairs
- Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Reserve Bank of Australia.
We also provide taxpayer information to treaty partners overseas under international tax agreements.
If you have an Australian Business Number, some information on this form may be collected under the A New Tax System (Australian Business Number Act) 1999 and will be used to update your details on the Australian Business Register (ABR)External Link. Where authorised by law, selected information may be made publicly available and some may be passed to a wide range of government agencies, including Commonwealth, state and local government agencies.
Our privacy policy contains important information about your privacy, including information about how you can access and seek correction of information we hold about you, how to make a complaint if you think we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with any privacy complaints.
If you have a privacy concern or need more information, phone or write to our privacy hotline.
To report an instance where you suspect your privacy has been compromised, see Data breach guidance for individuals.