Assessments
When you lodge your tax return for an income year, we issue you with an assessment (original assessment). An assessment shows your tax liability for that income year.
We will issue you with an amended assessment showing your updated tax liability if either:
- you request an amendment to your assessment, for example to include a deduction you forgot to claim
- we review your return and amend your assessment, for example, if we disallow a deduction you have claimed because you can't claim it under the law.
There are time limits for amending an assessment and an amended assessment. The time limit gives you certainty about your tax affairs because it means we can't amend your assessment outside the time limit.
Individuals
Individuals generally have 2 years to amend an assessment. The time limit starts from the day after your notice of assessment is sent to you.
For example, if you receive an email from myGov on 3 November 2025 to advise you your notice of assessment is available, your amendment period starts on 4 November 2025. That means you have until 4 November 2027 to request an amendment to your assessment.
If you are out of time to amend your assessment, you may need to lodge an objection instead. While the time limit for lodging amendments and objections is the same, you can request an extension of time to lodge an objection in some circumstances.
You can submit more than one amendment request within a review period.
Sole Traders
For sole traders, the time limit to amend an assessment for the 2023–24 income year and earlier income years is generally 2 years.
For the 2024–25 income year and later income years, sole traders will have 4 years to amend an assessment.
The period for amending your assessment starts from the day after your assessment is sent to you.
You should submit an amendment early to ensure that we can process it in time.
You can submit more than one amendment request within a period of review.
Generally, we can't amend your assessment more than 2 years after it was issued unless you request it. However, we may amend your tax return outside the time limit in exceptional circumstances, such as when evasion or fraud has occurred.
If you're a business or super entity, see Time limits for business and super amendments.
When to lodge an objection
If you're out of time to amend your assessment, you may need to lodge an objection instead.
You'll need to lodge an objection if you want to:
- dispute the law
- dispute the facts we have used to come to a decision about your tax affairs (including your assessment)
- lodge an amendment outside of the time limits.
You may be able to request an extension of time to lodge an objection in some circumstances.
For more information on objections, see Eligibility to lodge an objection.