Pre-filling 2012–15

Available pre-filling reports

Taxpayer details

The following information can be pre-filled from our records:

• name
• gender (not available for pre-filling from 2016)
• Australian residency (at the report creation date)
• postal and residential address
• phone number
• date of birth.

PAYG payment summaries

All original and amended PAYG payment summaries as they are reported to us by employers and super funds will be available.

PAYG payment summary – individual non-business

The pre-filling service will provide the following details if reported:

• salary or wages (including paid parental leave)
• allowances, earnings, tips, director's fees, etc
• lump sum payments
• Australian Government allowances and payments
• Australian annuities and superannuation income streams
• foreign source income
• other income, including lump sum E payments
• union and professional association fees
• workplace giving
• total reportable fringe benefits amounts
• reportable employer superannuation contributions.

PAYG payment summary – employment termination payment

The pre-filling service will provide the following detail if reported – employment termination payments.

PAYG payment summary – superannuation income stream

The pre-filling service will provide the following details if reported:

• Australian annuities and superannuation income streams
• Australian superannuation income streams.

PAYG payment summary – superannuation lump sum

The pre-filling service will provide the following detail if reported – Australian superannuation lump sum payments.

PAYG payment summary – business and personal services income

The pre-filling service will provide the following detail if reported – attributed personal services income.

Voluntary agreements, labour hire and other specified payments

Details of payments made under voluntary agreements, labour hire and other specified payments will display as information only. Check with your client and declare this income for the appropriate item on the tax return.

Reportable employer super contributions reported on this payment summary will display.

Government payments

The pre-filling service will provide information from:

• Centrelink
• Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA)
• Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

This information consists of:

• taxable payments, including pensions and allowances
• tax-free government pensions.

ATO interest

Interest information is sourced from ATO systems.

Assessable interest amounts we paid will display, including:

• interest on early payments
• interest on overpayments
• delayed refund interest.

A net interest amount will display as follows – either:

• total net assessable interest income amount, which will include remitted (or reimbursed)     
  • general Interest charge (GIC)
  • shortfall Interest charge (SIC)
  • late payment interest (LPI)
• total net deductible interest expense will display, which will include imposed     
  • GIC
  • SIC
  • LPI.

In certain circumstances the business rules for the pre-fill reports do not correctly capture the interest data. (For example, where your client has not claimed a GIC deduction in an earlier year and there is a later year remission that does not have to be declared, we report the remission on the basis that a deduction has been or can be claimed.) You should check your client's statement of account to ensure the accuracy of the pre-fill data before lodging their tax return.

Changes for 2013 and prior income tax years

ATO interest totals are no longer provided for the 2013 and prior income tax years. A message will display advising that the client has ATO interest on their account. You will need to refer to your client’s statements of account and other source documents to manually calculate ATO interest.

Changes for 2014

In certain circumstances the business rules do not correctly capture ATO interest data such as where your client has lodged late returns or been released from debt. A message will display advising that the client has ATO interest on their account. You will need to refer to your client’s statements of account and other source documents to manually calculate ATO interest.

Changes for 2015

• ATO interest information available for more clients due to improved data capture such as for clients who have been formally released from paying interest amounts.
• In certain circumstances the business rules do not correctly capture ATO interest data such as where your client has lodged late returns. A message may display advising that the client has ATO interest on their account. You will need to refer to your client’s statements of account and other source documents to manually calculate ATO interest.

For more information, see Recurring data issues – Calculating ATO interest – the business rules used to determine ATO interest data may not suit your client's circumstance.

Interest income

Information reported to us by financial institutions and private companies will be available for pre-filling.

Available information consists of:

• interest-bearing accounts, including savings accounts, term deposits and fixed interest securities
• interest distributed by private companies
• individual sole and joint accounts – for example     
  • husband and wife joint accounts will be displayed
  • business partnership, trust, and superannuation accounts will not be displayed.

Apportioned amounts are calculated according to the number of investment owners reported by the provider.

There may be instances where the interest from children's bank accounts is pre-filled for the parent. Refer to Recurring data issues – Interest from non-formal trust accounts.

You may also notice an amount of investment income that belongs to a linked non-individual, such as a superannuation or trust fund. Refer to Recurring data issues – Non-individual investment income for details.

Dividend and interest schedule

Dividend and interest information reported by companies through the company tax return are available from 2015.

Apportioned amounts are calculated according to the number of investment owners reported by the financial institution.

Dividend income

Information reported to us by share registries, private companies and most listed public corporations will be available.

Information includes gross and apportioned amounts for:

• unfranked dividends
• TFN amounts withheld from dividends
• apportioned amounts, which are calculated according to the number of investment owners reported by the provider.

Husband and wife joint accounts will be displayed. Business partnership, trust, and superannuation accounts will not be displayed.

Employee share schemes

We will provide details of your client's employee share scheme (ESS) interests as reported by employers and other payers on the ESS annual report.

Information consists of:

• employer's name and Australian business number (ABN)
• shareholder registration number (SRN) or holder identification number (HIN)
• plan reference number
• amount of discount from taxed upfront schemes – eligible for reduction
• amount of discount from taxed upfront schemes – not eligible for reduction
• amount of discount from deferral schemes
• amount of discounts on ESS interests acquired pre 1 July 2009 and 'cessation time' occurred during the financial year
• TFN amounts withheld from discounts.

Managed funds distributions

Managed investment funds will provide distribution income details as reported in the Annual investment income report (AIIR).

Information includes:

• trusts
• partnerships (from 2015)
• capital gains
• foreign entities
• foreign source income and foreign assets or property.

You will be able to view details of:

• a list of managed fund accounts
• sole and joint investments (as an individual)     
  • husband and wife joint investments will be displayed.

Changes for 2014

New data available for managed fund distributions including:

• franked distributions from trusts
• net income from trusts
• net foreign rent
• capital gains
• other deductions relating to amounts shown at net income from trusts.

Partnership distributions

Statement of distribution information reported by partnerships through the partnership tax return will be available for pre-filling in the partner’s individual tax return.

Information will consist of:

• partnerships and trusts
• foreign source income and foreign assets or property
• other refundable tax offsets.

You will be able to view details of partnerships.

If the pre-filled information doesn't match your client's statement of distributions, use the information the partnership provided to your client – contact the partner who notices are sent to if you have any questions.

Share disposals

Details of share disposals are provided to remind taxpayers about possible capital gains tax events and will contain the:

• company name
• Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) code
• HIN or SRN
• date of sale
• number of shares sold
• number of investors.

The following types of transactions will be included:

• PRF – preference shares
• ORD – ordinary shares
• CDI – CHESS – depository interest transactions.

We are able to display a maximum of 20 share disposals.

Share buybacks

Share holdings will be pre-filled where your client participated in a share buyback event that may have resulted in a capital gains event.

Taxable payments

From 2013, contractor payment information reported to us in the Taxable payments annual report will be pre-filled.

The contractor payment information is not mapped to a specific label – it will be provided in a summary.

Information is only available for individual contractors – it is not available for contractors that operate as companies, trusts or partnerships.

The contractor payment information includes:

• payer name
• payer ABN
• date available for pre-filling
• type
• tax withheld where ABN not quoted
• total GST
• gross amount paid.

It should be noted that:

• the gross amount includes GST, if it has been charged
• amounts invoiced, but not actually paid in the financial year, are not included.

Net farm management deposits or repayments

Information is reported by financial institutions and will include:

• company name
• account number
• account holder name
• details of deposits, repayments, transfers in and transfers out.

If the pre-fill data provided is different from your client’s records, you should use the information provided by the client.

Changes for 2014

Changes to reporting of farm managed deposit data to the ATO may cause the data used for pre-filling to be incomplete. If the data provided in the pre-filling report is different from your client’s records, you should use the information provided by the client.

Changes for 2015

Changes to reporting of farm managed deposit data to the ATO may cause the data used for pre-filling to be incomplete. If the data provided in the pre-filling report is different from your client’s records, you should use the information provided by the client.

Tax offsets

• Seniors and pensioners – a reminder message will be displayed if your client may be eligible.
• Australian superannuation income stream – amounts reported on payment summaries will be displayed at T2.
• Zone – Remote area allowance amounts reported on payment summaries will be displayed for information (for zone tax offset eligibility and calculation).

Changes for 2015

A message will display if the client received the net medical expenses tax offset in 2014 and whether they may be entitled to the offset for 2015.

Private health insurance policy details

Information will be processed using our enterprise systems and will be updated throughout the week, for the current financial year and previous financial year only. No updates will occur on weekends.

All rebate percentages are adjusted annually on 1 April.

This means the rebate percentage for premiums paid before 1 April will be different to the rebate percentage for premiums paid on or after 1 April.

The benefit codes indicate which percentage applies to the premiums (as determined by the payment date and the age of the client) but it is not the rebate percentage.

Information will include:

• health insurer ID and name
• membership number
• premiums eligible for Australian Government rebate
• Australian Government rebate received
• benefit code.

For more information, see Private health insurance rebate.

Medicare levy surcharge

We will provide details reported to us by health funds to help you confirm that your client held an adequate level of health insurance.

Information will be processed using our enterprise systems and will be updated throughout the week, for the current financial year and previous financial year only. No updates will occur on weekends.

Information will include:

• health insurer ID and name
• membership number
• start and end date of the policy
• type of policy     
  • S – Single cover
  • P – Single parent cover
  • C – Couple cover
  • F – Family cover.

Income test related items

We will display in the TAP Pre-filling report the following data as reported on payment summaries:

• total reportable fringe benefits amounts
• reportable employer superannuation contributions
• tax-free government pensions.

Ensure compulsory super amounts are not included.

For more information, see Recurring data issues – Reportable employer super contributions on payment summaries.

ATO data

This section includes amounts to help you estimate your client's refund or debt, such as:

• Higher Education Loan Program (HELP), Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS) and Trade Support Loan (TSL) repayable balances
• PAYG instalments – the total amount displayed represents the calculated liability regardless of payment
• income averaging for primary producers and special professionals
• accumulative low-rate cap
• overdue income tax returns advisory message will display in the TAP pre-fill report when your client has one or more outstanding tax return in the 3 years immediately prior.

Prior year tax return details

This data is provided by our systems from the previous year's tax return:

• rental property details reported
• net capital losses carried forward to later income years
• the occupation description and code source of supplementary income reported
• deductions reported
• tax offset reminders
• number of dependent children reported
• spouse details – name, date of birth and gender.

Changes for 2012

New messaging relating to the Antsis decision where clients had prior year self-education expenses. From 2012 deductions for self-education expenses may not be claimable against government assistance payments.

Current data issues

Check for current data issue with pre-filing data.

Resolving discrepancies

Discrepancies between the information sent to your clients and the information reported to us for pre-filling need to be resolved with the data provider before you lodge your client's return.

If you are unable to resolve the discrepancy or have notification that an income or account does not belong to your client, we prefer you to contact us online using Practice mail in Online services for agents. Select:

• new Mail message
• topic Income tax
• subject Pre-filled tax return data incorrect.