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Pre-filling 2019–21

Pre-filling report contents for 2019–21.

Last updated 3 June 2024

Available pre-filling reports

List of information and year available in pre-filling reports

Information type

2019

2020

2021

Taxpayer details

yes

yes

yes

PAYG payment summaries and STP income statements

yes

yes

yes

Government payments

yes

yes

yes

ATO interest

yes

yes

yes

Interest income

yes

yes

yes

Dividend and interest schedule

yes

yes

yes

Dividend income

yes

yes

yes

Employee share schemes

yes

yes

yes

Managed funds distributions

yes

yes

yes

Partnership distributions

yes

yes

yes

Foreign source investment income

yes

yes

yes

Cryptocurrency disposal

no

yes

yes

Work-related car expenses

no

no

yes

Share and unit disposals

yes

yes

yes

Property transfers

yes

yes

yes

Business transactions

yes

yes

yes

Taxable payments

yes

yes

yes

Net farm management deposits or repayments

yes

yes

yes

Tax offsets

yes

yes

yes

Medicare levy surcharge (MLS)

yes

yes

yes

Private health insurance policy details

yes

yes

yes

Early stage innovation company

yes

yes

yes

Income test related items

yes

yes

yes

ATO data

yes

yes

yes

Prior year tax return details

yes

yes

yes

JobKeeper Payment Scheme

no

no

yes

This information is available in the pre-filling report in:

  • Online services for agents
  • practitioner lodgment service (PLS) with some exceptions. MyDeductions is included in PLS.

Taxpayer details

We will provide the following information from our records:

  • name
  • Australian residency (at the report creation date)
  • postal and residential address
  • date of birth.

PAYG payment summaries and STP income statements

We will provide information from all original and amended PAYG payment summaries and Single Touch Payroll (STP) income statements as they are reported to us by employers and super funds. We generally make this information available within a couple of days of receiving it.

Single Touch Payroll (STP)

The employer payment information will be available in Online Services for agents after each pay event. STP provides an income statement in your client's ATO online services at the end of the financial year. Generally, your client's employer has until 31 July to finalise the income statement. It is advisable to wait until the income statement is finalised before completing your client's tax return.

STP will pre-fill:

  • from 1 July 2019 – for small employers with 19 or less employees
  • from 1 July 2018 – for large employers with 20 or more employees.

The pre-filling service will include:

  • 'unfinalised' data  
    • being year to date payment data reported by the payer but the payer has not yet 'finalised' the data via STP
  • a new status  
    • to identify the data as ‘unfinalised’ or 'finalised'
  • a message where data is unfinalised.

STP reports only the following income statement types:

  • individual non-business – only income types of ‘S’ and ‘H’
  • employment termination
  • foreign employment
  • business and personal services income (PSI) – types VOL, LAB, and OTH.

Changes for 2020

Small employers with 19 or less employees – Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting started from 1 July 2019.

Changes for 2021

COVID-19 early release of superannuation payments are tax free and are not included in a member's assessable income and do not need to be reported in their pay as you go (PAYG) withholding payment summary annual report to the ATO. For more information see Single Touch Payroll.

Individual non-business

We will provide the following details if reported:

  • payer details and income type (S – salary, P – pension, H – working holiday makers)
  • item 1 – salary or wages (including paid parental leave)
  • item 2 – allowances, earnings, tips, director's fees, etc
  • item 3 – lump sum payments
  • item 5 – Australian Government allowances and payments
  • item 6 – Australian Government pensions and allowances
  • item 7 – Australian annuities and superannuation income streams
  • item 20 – foreign source income
  • item 24 – other income, including lump sum E payments
  • item D5 – union/profession association fees
  • item D9 – workplace giving
  • item IT1 – reportable fringe benefits (FBT exempt payer)
  • item IT1 – reportable fringe benefits (FBT non-exempt payer)
  • item IT2 – reportable employer superannuation contributions.

Employment termination payment

We will provide the following detail if reported:

  • item 4 – employment termination payments
  • employment termination payment code.

Australian annuities and superannuation income stream

We will provide the following details if reported:

  • item 7 – Australian annuities and superannuation income streams
  • item T2 – Australian superannuation income stream
  • lump sum in arrears information
  • taxable components – taxed and untaxed
  • reversionary income stream indicator
  • transfer balance cap messaging.

Superannuation lump sum

We will provide the following detail if reported:

  • item 8 – Australian superannuation lump sum payments
  • taxable component – taxed and untaxed elements
  • death benefit and code.

Business and personal services income

We will provide the following detail if reported:

  • item 9 – attributed personal services income
  • 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 (14 or 15) on the tax return
  • item IT2 – Reportable employer super contributions report.

Foreign employment

We will provide the following detail if reported:

  • payment type code  
    • J – joint petroleum development area
    • F – foreign employment income)
  • lump sum information.

Government payments

We will provide information within a couple of days of receiving it from:

  • Centrelink – Services Australia
  • Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA)
  • Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business (DESSFB)
  • Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE).

This information consists of:

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

The information provided includes details for:

  • item 1 – salary or wages
  • item 5 – Australian Government allowances and payments
  • item 6 – Australian Government pensions and allowances
  • item 24 – other income
  • item IT3 – tax-free government pensions
  • remote area allowance paid (information for zone tax offset calculations).

Informative messaging will display where payments have been reported for the following payment types:

  • Parental leave pay (PPL)
  • Dad and partner pay (DAP)
  • business services wage assessment tool payment (BSW).

Changes for 2020

BSWAT informative message has been removed.

ATO interest

We will provide Interest information, sourced from our systems, on the income tax, fringe benefits tax and integrated client account (ICA) including insolvency accounts.

Assessable interest amounts we pay will display at item 10L – Gross interest, and will include:

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

The total net ATO interest amount at either item 24X or D10N as follows:

  • A total net assessable interest income amount will display at item 24X Other income – Category 2 (ATO interest), and will include remitted or reimbursed  
    • general interest charge (GIC)
    • shortfall interest charge (SIC)
    • late payment interest (LPI).
  • A total net deductible interest expense amount will display at item D10N Cost of managing tax affairs – Interest charged by the ATO, and will include imposed  
    • GIC
    • SIC
    • LPI.

From 1 July 2015, we introduced a new way of capturing and reporting pre-fill information for ATO interest. If you choose not to rely on our pre-fill information you will need to manually calculate the interest amounts using your client's statement of account.

For more information, see Calculate and report ATO interest.

ATO interest – recurring data issues

In some circumstances, we may not provide pre-fill data but will display a message that the client has interest. In this case, you will need to manually calculate the deductions or income amounts, using either reporting method.

In addition, pre-fill reports may not capture your clients' specific circumstances and you may need to adjust the interest amounts reported.

Changes for 2019

From 2019 a new message will display with a link to Recurring data issues – calculating ATO interest to provide information on when adjustments may need to be made for:

  • recoupments of interest charged
  • change in residency status
  • movement of transactions across the ICA.

Changes for 2021

From 2021, pre-fill ATO interest data will be sourced from all client accounts held by the individual taxpayers

For more information, see Recurring data issues – calculating ATO interest.

Interest income

Information reported to us by financial institutions and private companies is available for pre-filling at item 10 – Gross interest.

Information is generally available within a couple of days of being reported and 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
  • a message displayed where all interest income may not have been reported in the previous year.

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

There may be instances where the interest from children's bank accounts is pre-filled for the parent.

You may also notice an amount of investment income that belongs to a linked non-individual, such as a super fund or trust fund.

For more information see:

Dividend and interest schedule

Dividend and interest information reported by companies through the company tax return is available for pre-filling at item 10 – Gross interest and item 11 – Dividends.

Information is generally available within a couple of days of being reported.

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 is available for pre-filling at item 11 – Dividends.

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

Information is generally available within a couple of days of being reported, and consists of:

  • investment accounts that are issuer or Clearing House Electronic Sub-register System (CHESS) sponsored
  • dividends paid 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
  • listed investment company capital gain deduction (shown at item D8)
  • a message displayed where all dividend income may not have been reported in the previous year.

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.

From 2018, new and amended ESS data reported for 2015 and prior years will not be updated in pre-fill. New and amended ESS data reported for 2016 and later years will continue to be updated in pre-fill.

Information is generally available within a couple of days of being reported and consists of:

  • employer's name and Australian business number (ABN)
  • shareholder registration number (SRN) or holder identification number (HIN)
  • plan reference number
  • discount from taxed upfront schemes – eligible for reduction (12D)
  • discount from taxed upfront schemes – not eligible for reduction (12E)
  • discount from deferral schemes (12F)
  • discount on ESS interests acquired pre 1 July 2009 and 'cessation time' occurred during financial year (12G)
  • TFN amounts withheld from discounts (12C).

A message will display when amounts either:

  • have been adjusted to exclude foreign service period
  • have not been adjusted to exclude foreign service period.

Changes for 2020

Label 12G will no longer display.

Managed funds distributions

Managed investment funds and Attribution managed investment trusts (AMIT) will provide income details as reported in the Annual investment income report (AIIR).

Information is generally available within a couple of days of being reported and consists of:

  • item 13 – partnerships and trusts
  • item 18 – capital gains
  • item 19 – foreign entities
  • item 20 – 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) – for example husband and wife joint investments will be displayed.

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

If the pre-filled information doesn't match your client's distribution statement, use the information the fund manager provided to your client – contact the managed fund if you have any questions.

For more information, see Recurring data issues – managed fund data reporting discrepancies.

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 generally be available within a couple of days of it being reported and consists of:

  • item 13 – partnerships and trusts
  • item 20 – foreign source income and foreign assets or property
  • item T11 – other refundable tax offsets (share of exploration credits)
  • item IT5 – net financial investment loss
  • item IT6 – net rental property loss.

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.

Changes for 2019

Label edit reflected.

Changes for 2020

Label moved from T11 to T10.

Changes for 2021

Label moved from T10 to T9.

Foreign source investment income

Foreign source investment income reported to us by financial institutions and private companies will be available for pre-filling at item 20 – Foreign source income and foreign assets or property.

Information will generally be available within a couple of days of it being reported.

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

Changes for 2020

New messaging.

Cryptocurrency disposal

Informative messaging will display where individual taxpayers who may have disposed of cryptocurrency asset during the financial year.

Work-related car expenses

Informative messaging will display where an individual taxpayer has a novated lease during the financial year.

Share and unit disposals

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

  • issuer name or name of investment
  • investment code
  • HIN or SRN
  • date of disposal
  • number of shares or units sold
  • number of investors
  • capital proceeds (where available)
  • original (O) or amended (A) data indicator.

The following types of transactions will be included:

  • PRF – preference shares
  • ORD – ordinary shares
  • CDI – CHESS – depository interest transactions
  • share buybacks – messaging where your client participated in a share buyback that may have resulted in a capital gains tax event.

We can display a maximum of 20 share disposals only.

Changes for 2020

New messaging.

Property transfers

Details of property transfers are provided to remind taxpayers about possible capital gains tax events and will contain:

  • messaging where your client may have transferred a property resulting in a capital gains tax event
  • property address
  • contract date
  • settlement date
  • sale price.

We can display a maximum of 5 property transfers only.

Changes for 2020

Updates made to property transfer's main residence messaging to reflect legislative requirements.

Business transactions

Data about payments received through electronic payment systems will be pre-filled from 2019 as information only. Electronic payment systems can include BPAY, PayPal, credit card facilities and others.

Data displayed will include:

  • provider name
  • net annual payments
  • transaction currency
  • more data exists indicator (maximum of 25 records can be displayed).

Taxable payments

We will pre-fill payment and grant information reported to us in the Taxable payments annual report by:

  • businesses in the building and construction industry
  • government entities
  • cleaners and courier services from 2019.

Contractor payments

Contractor payment information reported to us in the Taxable payments annual report will be pre-filled.

Where a contractor has received payments for services from multiple businesses and/or government entities, the information will be available as reports are received and processed. It may take some time for all this information to be reported.

Only high-quality data will be pre-filled, but all data may be used for compliance purposes at a later time. Amounts invoiced but not actually paid to the contractor in the financial year are not included in this year's information. Contractors should check their own records to ensure all income is included in their tax returns.

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

As with other pre-filled items, information will only be available for individual contractors – it will not be available for contractors that operate as companies, trusts or partnerships.

The contractor payment information will include:

  • payer name
  • payer ABN
  • date available for pre-filling
  • type – (original or amended)
  • gross amount paid
  • GST
  • tax withheld.

Note:

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

Changes for 2019

Contractor payment information reported on contractors that provide cleaning or courier services.

Changes for 2020

Contractor payment information reported on contractors that provide road freight services, security, investigation, surveillance or IT services.

Changes for 2021

Certain government grants are potentially treated as non-assessable, non-exempt income for the grant recipient. Informative messaging will display where government grants have been reported as potentially non-assessable, non-exempt income, refer to Non-assessable non-exempt government grants.

For more information, see Taxable payments annual report (TPAR).

Government grants

Government grant information reported to us in the Taxable payments annual report (TPAR) will be pre-filled.

Government grant information will not be mapped to a specific label – it will be provided in a summary. Consider the nature of the grant to determine if it should be included as income in your client's tax return.

Government grant information will include:

  • payer name
  • payer ABN
  • name of grant or grant program
  • date of grant payment
  • gross amount paid
  • GST
  • date available for pre-filling
  • type (original or amended).

Note:

  • gross amount paid includes GST, if it has been charged
  • report may not include all government grants paid
  • nature of the grant must be considered before including it in the income tax return.

For more information, see Payments government entities need to report in their TPAR.

Net farm management deposits or repayments

Information is reported by financial institutions and will include:

  • company name
  • investment reference number
  • account name
  • details of deposits, repayments, transfers in and transfers out
  • interest offset account.

If the pre-fill data provided do not match your client’s records, you should use the information provided by the client.

Changes for 2020

Amount of closing balance and date available for pre-filling will be provided as information only.

Tax offsets

A reminder message will be displayed when your client may be eligible for item T1 – seniors and pensioners tax offset (SAPTO) because they either:

  • were in receipt of a qualifying Australian Government pension or allowance (declared at label 6 in the income tax return)
  • weren't in receipt of an Australian Government pension or allowance (declared at label 6 in the income tax return) however they both  
    • satisfy the age requirement for the Centrelink age pension, as at 30 June of the current financial year
    • were eligible for an Australian Government age pension.

The following items will be displayed:

  • Australian superannuation income stream – item T2
  • remote area allowance (used in zone offset calculations at T4)
  • early stage venture capital limited partnership – current year tax offset for managed funds at item T8K
  • early stage venture capital limited partnership (ESVCLP) – tax offset amount carried forward from previous year at item T8M
  • early stage investor – current year tax offset for managed funds at item T9L
  • early stage investor – tax offset amount carried forward from previous year at item T9O
  • the total exploration credits reported by private companies and managed funds will be displayed at item T11.

Medicare levy surcharge (MLS)

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 the 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.

If Medicare levy surcharge details are not available when you request the pre-fill information, you will need to use the details provided in the private health insurance statement from your client's fund or funds. From 2019, health insurers are not required to send private health insurance statements to clients, unless requested. You will need to contact the health fund for a statement.

Changes for 2020

New message provides information on how to determine if a Medicare levy surcharge liability applies.

For more information, see Your private health insurance statement.

Private health insurance policy details

From 2019, health insurers are no longer required to send a private health insurance statement to their clients, unless their client requests one.

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

All rebate percentages are adjusted annually on 1 April.

This means your client's 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 distinguish which period the data relates to.

Information will include:

  • health insurer ID and name
  • membership number
  • premiums eligible for Australian Government rebate
  • Australian Government rebate received
  • benefit code
  • a message and link to more information about Private health insurance statement availability.

Changes for 2019

Health insurers are not required to send private health insurance statements to clients unless requested.

New message and link to more information about the Private health insurance statement availability.

Changes for 2020

New message provides information on how to determine if a Medicare levy surcharge (MLS) liability applies.

MLS is to be determined by the agent completing the return. In respect of whether the client has private patient hospital cover or not for the full year, the tax agent will need to calculate the number of days based on the MLS start and end dates provided. They will first need to check if the client's dependants, including their spouse (if any), also had an appropriate level of private patient hospital cover for the income year.

If private health insurance policy details have pre-filled, but there is no MLS information pre-filled, it means there was no private patient hospital cover for that policy, for that year, from that fund. The client may have had ancillary cover only. If there are start and end dates within the relevant financial year, then the policy provided private patient hospital cover between (inclusive) the dates specified.

If the client has private health insurance (PHI) and the MLS details or PHI policy details (or both) and are not yet available when you request the pre-fill information, you will need to use the details provided in the private health insurance statement from your client's fund or funds.

For more information see:

Early stage innovation company

The following data will be displayed in 2019:

  • company name
  • share issue date
  • amount paid.

We can display a maximum of 20 share disposals only.

Income test related items

We will display the following data as reported on payment summaries:

  • total reportable fringe benefits amounts – item IT1
  • reportable employer superannuation contributions – item IT2
  • tax-free government pensions – item IT3.

Ensure compulsory super amounts are not included.

For more information, see Recurring data issues – reportable employer super contributions on payment summaries or income statements.

ATO data

This section includes amounts to help you estimate your client's refund or debt.

Help and other income-contingent loans debts

Information will be displayed for repayable amounts of income-contingent loans for:

  • Higher Education Loan Program (HELP)
  • Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS)
  • Trade Support Loan (TSL)
  • Student Start-up Loan (SSL)
  • ABSTUDY Student Start-up Loan (ABSTUDY SSL).

The repayable balance provided by pre-filling may be different to your client's account balance. The repayable balance doesn't include new debts until they become repayable. There is a lead time between when the debt is incurred and when it becomes repayable.

Indexation is applied to repayable amounts each year on 1 June.

For 2020, the pre-fill amount displayed includes the repayable balance at 1 June 2020, less any repayments made after that date.

Where the pre-fill request is made between:

  • 1 January and 31 May of the current year, the repayable balance will only include debts incurred up to (but not including) 1 January of the previous calendar year
  • 1 June and 31 December of the current year, the repayable balance will only include debts incurred up to (but not including) 1 January of the current calendar year.

Changes for 2020

Vocational and Educational Training Student Loans (VSL) debt has now separated from the HELP debt.

Prior year amounts

If the pre-fill request is for an outstanding prior year return, the repayable amount is shown as at the date the pre-fill request is made. This means if a pre-fill request is made for a prior year return, the current repayable loan balance is shown and will be the repayable amount regardless of the income year of the return.

PAYG instalments

The total amount displayed represents the calculated liability regardless of payment.

Accumulative low-rate cap

Information will include:

  • accumulative low-rate cap amount
  • year
  • low-rate cap used
  • messaging where client has exceeded the low-rate cap.

Income averaging for primary producers and special professionals

We will display the following amounts for:

  • primary producers – basic taxable income amounts by year
  • special professionals – taxable professional income amounts by year.

Changes for 2020

New message to manually calculate average taxable professional income for foreign residents.

Overdue income tax returns

An overdue income tax returns advisory message will display in the pre-fill report when your client has one or more outstanding tax returns in the 3 years immediately prior.

Changes for 2020

  • Advisory message will provide year-specific outstanding tax returns in the 3 years immediately prior.

Personal superannuation contribution deductions

Information will be pre-filled from 2019 as information only which includes:

  • total superannuation contributions claimed on notice of intent (NOI)
  • provider name
  • provider ABN
  • member account number
  • indication of fund NOI receipt and acknowledgement.

First home super saver scheme (FHSS)

Information will be pre-filled from 2019 as information only, which includes:

  • total assessable FHSS released amounts – item 24R
  • total tax withheld – assessable FHSS released amounts – item 24S.

Prior-year tax return details

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

  • occupation description and code (not available in PLS)
  • sources of supplementary income reported (not available in PLS)
  • rental property address and date first earned income
  • net capital losses carried forward to later income years
  • business income and expenses – closing stock  
    • total closing stock amount
    • subtotals for primary and non-primary production amounts (not available in PLS)
    • valuation method type – C cost, M market selling value or R replacement value (not available in PLS)
  • deductions reported (not available in PLS)  
    • includes a message where work-related expenses were high compared to clients in the same occupation with similar income (now also available in PLS)
    • cost of managing tax affairs amount will display as a combined value of the split components (D10N, D10L and D10M) for 2019
    • a new message refers to Online services for agents, lodgement history, to view all labels completed in your client's prior year income tax return
  • dependents  
    • number of dependent children and students for Medicare (M1)
    • number of dependent children for Income test IT8 – (available in PLS)
  • spouse details – name, date of birth and gender (not available in PLS).

Changes for 2020

The split sub-components (D10N, D10L and D10M) of Cost of managing tax affairs (COMTA) will pre-fill separately in 2020.

Prior year personal superannuation contributions will no longer display.

Changes for 2021

Spousal gender field removed.

For more information, see Online services for agents.

JobKeeper Payment Scheme

We will provide pre-fill information about JobKeeper payments for sole traders who received the payments for themselves plus any amounts paid to their eligible employees (if applicable) since 1 July 2020, to assist with the preparation of their 2020–21 individual tax return.

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

Only high-quality data will be pre-filled. Sole traders should review and cross-check all payment amounts received during the 2020–21 financial year with their own records to ensure all income is included in their tax returns.

Where a sole trader has received JobKeeper payments for themselves and any amounts paid to their eligible employees, the total payment amount received should be declared on the Business and professional Items schedule, at 'Assessable government industry payments'.

For primary producers the payments will be included in label G.

For non-primary producers the payments will be included in label H.

Sole traders that have only claimed for their eligible employees will not be provided with a total amount of JobKeeper payments received since 1 July 2020.

As with other pre-filled items, information will only be available for individuals. It will not be available for non-individual entities that operate as companies, trusts or partnerships.

The JobKeeper payment information will include:

  • payment type
  • total gross amount received.

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.

 

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