After you lodge

Processing times

We aim to process most electronically lodged current year tax returns within 12 business days.

If you can't lodge electronically, lodging a paper tax return can take up to 50 days for us to process manually. Find out how to prevent delays in processing returns.

Provide this information to your clients to manage their expectations about when they will receive their notice of assessment.

For more information, see our service commitment.

Checking the status of a tax return

We will keep you informed about the progress of your client’s tax returns, and any delays, so your clients will know to expect their notice of assessment.

We let you know about the progress of your client’s tax returns in several ways, including:

• Tax return processing
• Online services for agents
• Notice of assessment
• Other electronic communication to clients.

Tax return processing

Weekly status reports

If there are processing delays with your client’s electronically-lodged tax returns, we'll email you a weekly report. The report will provide details of what may be causing the delay.

Your clients will first appear on the Tax Return Status report 26 days after lodgment. The report includes all clients with delayed returns, up to one year from date of lodgment.

Management of 'lodged' status delay for specific client types

Despite receiving a lodgment reference number (LRN) from the practitioner lodgment service, in some cases the status of your client's return won't appear as 'lodged' in Online services for agents for up to 28 days.

While the overall number of tax returns affected are low, practices with a large number of specific client groups can experience a higher overall impact.

The 'lodged' status may be delayed when:

• specific client groups, including high wealth individual, partnerships, trusts or consolidated groups, enter a substituted accounting period (SAP)
• agents lodge early using a previous year’s income tax return
• a client account/role or a client-to-agent link issue occurs.

We have a process in place to:

1. identify income tax lodgments relating to client types that should display a 'lodged' status in Online services for agents
2. update these lodgments to show a ‘lodged’ status within 28 days.

If the 'lodged' status hasn't appeared after 28 days, you should phone the Tax or BAS agent phone service and quote the LRN. If multiple income tax returns are affected, submit a Tax practitioner assistance form and attach a bulk client list of impacted income tax returns.

Online services for agents

You can view the lodgment and progress of your client’s tax returns in Online services for agents. At Client summary select Lodgment then Income tax then History.

Your client's tax return Outcome will only be visible online after the tax return has been processed and the assessment amounts are dispersed to your client’s accounts.

Even when the issue date and assessment amount become visible, they are both subject to review and change until the notice of assessment has issued.

As we process your client’s tax return, the Status and Outcome in Online services for agents may differ from the details provided in the tax return status report For more information about Online services for agents status reasons, go to Checking the progress of a client's tax return.

Watch: Checking the progress of a return

Notice of assessment

You can view a client's notice of assessment in Online services for agents. At Client summary select Lodgment then Income tax then History.

You can also view the client's notice of assessment in Communication history.

For more information, see Your notice of assessment.

Other electronic communication to clients

If your client has created a myGov account that is linked to the ATO, they will receive their notice of assessment, tax receipts and most communication from us electronically via their myGov Inbox.

Communications sent to your clients via their myGov Inbox will not be sent to you in paper form. You can view those communications in Communication history in Online services for agents.

You can choose where our digital communications are sent using Communication preferences in Online services for agents.