I thought child care stuff you have to let centrelink know in advance that you will be claiming it from a certain date.. coz they won't back date it? And then they automatically pay you quarterly? That's what I was told when I rang when DS started at his first preschool.

And yep - I'm expecting my $2k for the kids (K Rudd's december payment) when we do our tax for this year.

ETA: just looked at the familyassist site... and yep you can claim child care tax rebate annually... geez... I always get told a different thing on the phone. All they told me was I had to give a date he was starting and it couldn't be earlier than the day I was applying for it coz it can't be backdated.. and told we'd be quarterly.. never told it could be annual?? pfft.