Self-assessment means the Tax Office uses the information you give on your tax return to work out your refund or tax debt. You are required by law to make sure you have shown all your assessable income and claimed only the deductions and tax offsets to which you are entitled. The Tax Office does not take any responsibility for checking the accuracy of the details you provide in your tax return. However, at a later date the Tax Office may examine the details contained in your tax return more thoroughly by reviewing specific parts, or by conducting an audit on your tax affairs.
What are your responsibilities?
It is your responsibility to lodge a tax return that is signed, complete and correct. Even if someone else - including a tax agent - helps you to prepare your tax return, you are still legally responsible for the accuracy of your information.
What if you lodge an incorrect tax return?
Our audit programs are designed to continually check for missing, inaccurate or incomplete information. If you become aware that your tax return is incorrect, you must contact us straight away.
Initiatives to complement self-assessment
There are a number of initiatives administered by the Tax Office which complement self-assessment. Examples include:
- if you take reasonable care with your tax affairs, you will not receive a penalty for honest mistakes - but please note that an interest charge on omitted income or over-claimed deductions and tax offsets could still be payable
- the process for applying for private rulings
- your entitlement to interest on early payment or over-payment of a tax debt, or the process for applying for an amendment if you find you have left something out of your tax return.
Do you need to ask for a private ruling?
If you are concerned about the way a tax law applies to your personal tax affairs, you can ask for a private ruling by completing a Private ruling application form, available on our website at ato.gov.au. You should lodge your tax return by the due date, even if you are waiting for the reply to your application. You may need to request an amendment to your tax return once you have received the private ruling.
We publish all private rulings on our website. What we publish will not contain anything that could identify you.