You can claim the senior Australians tax offset only if you meet all the following conditions relating to:

• age
• income
• eligibility for Australian Government pensions.

If you have a spouse you also need to work out whether they were eligible. See the definition of spouse in Special circumstances and glossary.

You cannot claim this tax offset if you were in jail for the whole of 2010-11.

You may not get the senior Australians tax offset even if you meet all the eligibility conditions as the amount of the tax offset is based on your individual rebate income, not your combined rebate income if you have a spouse.

Work out your rebate income at Rebate income.

Answering this question

Condition 1 - Age

You meet this condition if, on 30 June 2011, you were:

• a male
• • aged 65 years old or older, or
  • veteran or war widower aged 60 years old or older who met the veteran pension age test
     
    or
   
• a female
• • aged 64 years old or older, or
  • veteran or war widow aged 59 years old or older who met the veteran pension age test.
   

To find out whether you meet the veteran pension age test, go to Veteran pension age test below.

Do you meet condition 1?
Yes	Read condition 2.
No	You are not eligible for this tax offset. Go to question T3 Pensioner, or   return to main menu Tax return for individuals instructions.

Condition 2 - Income

You meet this condition if any of the following applied to you in 2010-11.

• You did not have a spouse, and your rebate income was less than $48,525.
• You had a spouse, and the combined rebate income* of you and your spouse was less than $78,992.
• At any time during the year you and your spouse had to live apart due to illness or because one of you was in a nursing home, and the combined rebate income * of you and your spouse was less than $91,840.

*Combined rebate income includes your spouse's share of any net income of a trust which the trustee was liable to pay tax on because your spouse was under a legal disability (such as under 18 years old on 30 June 2011), was a bankrupt or was a person who was declared legally incapable because of a mental condition.

Do you meet condition 2?
Yes	Read condition 3.
No	You are not eligible for this tax offset. Go to question T3 Pensioner, or   return to main menu Tax return for individuals instructions.

Condition 3 - Eligibility for Australian Government pensions and similar payments

You meet this condition if any of the following three criteria applied to you in 2010-11.

A. You received an Australian Government age pension from Centrelink, or a pension, allowance or benefit from the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) at any time during 2010-11.

If A applied to you, you meet this condition. Go to Completing your tax return below. Otherwise, read on.

B. You were eligible for an Australian Government age pension during 2010-11 but did not receive it because you did not make a claim or because of the application of the income test or the assets test, and you satisfy one of the following:

• you have been an Australian resident for age-pension purposes for either 10 continuous years or for more than 10 years of which five years were continuous
   
• you have a qualifying residence exemption (because you arrived in Australia as a refugee or under a special humanitarian program)
   
• you are a woman who was widowed in Australia (at a time when both you and your late partner were Australian residents), you have made a claim for the age pension and you had two years residence immediately before your claim
   
• you received a widow B pension, widow allowance, mature age allowance or partner allowance immediately before turning age-pension age
   
• you would qualify under an international social security agreement.

If B applied to you, you meet this condition. Go to Completing your tax return below. Otherwise, read on.

If you need assistance in determining your eligibility for a social security or Centrelink pension only, phone Centrelink on 13 23 00. For all other enquiries about the senior Australians tax offset, phone 13 28 61.

C. You were eligible for a pension, allowance or benefit from Veterans' Affairs during 2010-11 but did not receive it because you did not make a claim or because of the application of the income test or the assets test, and you satisfy either of the following:

• you are a veteran with eligible war service, or
   
• you are a Commonwealth veteran, allied veteran or allied mariner with qualifying service.

If you are not sure whether you were eligible for a payment, you can get further information from the DVA website at www.dva.gov.au or by phoning Veterans' Affairs on 13 32 54.

If C applied to you, you meet this condition.

Do you meet condition 3?
Yes	Go to Completing your tax return below.
No	You are not eligible for this tax offset. Go to question T3 Pensioner, or   return to main menu Tax return for individuals instructions.

Completing your tax return

Step 1

Work out which of the following code letters applied to your circumstances.

Senior Australians tax offset code letters
If at any time during 2010-11, you were single, separated or widowed, use	A
If you and your spouse were both eligible for the senior Australians tax offset, and at any time in 2010-11 'had to live apart due to illness' or lived apart because one of you was in a nursing home, use	B
If your spouse was not eligible for the senior Australians tax offset, and at any time in 2010-11 you and your spouse lived apart due to illness or because one of you was in a nursing home, use	C
If you and your spouse lived together and you were both eligible for the senior Australians tax offset, use	D
If you and your spouse lived together, but your spouse was not eligible for the senior Australians tax offset, use	E

'Had to live apart due to illness' refers to situations where you and your spouse did not live together because one or both of you have an indefinitely continuing illness or infirmity and, as a result your combined living expenses were increased.

If only one code letter above applied, go to step 2.

If more than one code letter applied, use the first code letter in the list on the previous page that applied to you, except as shown in the following table.

If both A and B applied, and your spouse's rebate income was less than $18,334, use	B
If both A and C applied, and your spouse received an Australian Government payment listed at question 6 Australian Government pensions and allowances, and your spouse's rebate income was less than $22,734 use	C
If both A and D applied, and your spouse's rebate income was less than $12,494, use	D
If both A and E applied, and your spouse received an Australian Government payment listed at question 6 Australian Government pensions and allowances, and your spouse's rebate income was less than $15,167 use	E

Step 2

Print your code letter in the TAX OFFSET CODE box at N item T2.

We will work out the amount of your tax offset.

Step 3

If you or your spouse was a veteran, war widow or war widower, read on and work out your veteran code letter; otherwise, go to step 4.

Select the code letter that applies to you.

Veteran code letters
If you were a veteran, war widow or war widower, use	V
If your spouse was a veteran, war widow or war widower, use	W
If both V and W apply to you, use	X

If a veteran code letter applies to you, print the code letter in the VETERAN CODE box at Y item T2. Otherwise, leave it blank.

Step 4

You must read about income tests and, where applicable, complete income tests items IT1, IT2, IT5 and IT6 and for deductible personal superannuation contributions item D12 on the Tax return for individuals (supplementary section) 2011.

Step 5

If your senior Australians tax offset code letter is A go to question T4 Australian superannuation income stream.

If your senior Australians tax offset code letter is B, C, D or E, you must complete Spouse details - married or de facto on pages 9-11 of your tax return.

Any unused portion of tax offset

If you are eligible for the senior Australians tax offset and your spouse is eligible for either the senior Australians tax offset or pensioner tax offset, and one of you does not fully use your tax offset, the unused portion may be available for transfer to the other person. We will work this out automatically and transfer any entitlement.

Veteran pension age test

You meet the veteran pension age test if one of the following applied to you and you were eligible for a pension, allowance or benefit under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986.

• You have eligible war service, that is, service in World War II or operational service as a member of the Australian Defence Force.
• You are a Commonwealth or allied veteran who served in a conflict in which the Australian Defence Force was engaged during a period of hostilities that is, World War II, or in Korea, Malaya, Indonesia or Vietnam.
• You are an Australian or allied mariner who served during World War II.
• You are the war widow or widower of a former member of the Australian Defence Force.

'Pension, allowance or benefit' includes:

• disability pension
• service pension, and
• white or gold Repatriation health cards for treatment entitlements.

If you are not sure if you meet the veteran pension age test, visit the DVA website at www.dva.gov.au or phone Veterans' Affairs on 13 32 54.

Where to go next go to question T3 Pensioner   return to main menu Tax return for individuals instructions   go back to question T1 Spouse (without dependent child or student), child-housekeeper or housekeeper