Is this the same as over-estimating?

Ok so DH and I got our tax done on the weekend (finally haha) and our tax refunds are minimal (ie, I got $13 back, and DH got $39 - not even enough to pay the tax guys fees!)

So he worked out my income and since the business had made a huge loss the previous tax year, he took it off my actual income, so I ended up just having a taxable income of just over $1300 for the whole year (yay, go me!)

So I told the FAO our estimates when I was still working (and I finished last august) and I said I was on around $22,000, and then when we moved down here, I rang them in around.. ummm... sep/oct? and told them that my income was $4000.

So is it still classed as over-estimating even if you did earn a little bit, but was changed by a loss from a business? If that makes sense?

And if it is classed as overestimating - does that mean I'll get something back from the FAO?

From my understanding Mel Centrelink work off your taxable income. So if what you told centrelink is higher than your taxable income then they owe you.

yep thats an over estimate hun.
If ur estimate is higher than ur actual taxable income, u can expect a return

Ahhh ok.

Well god I hope you guys are right, cos I would love some money right now - in so much debt.. lol

Fingers crossed it's a great surprise for you!!!

Mel - when your income is received by FAO from ATO, they'll look at it on a day by day basis

if you're entitled, on the 1300 ACTUAL income to get $10 a day (as an example), the system will look at every day of the year, and see what you were paid

for ftbb purposes, once you changed your income down to 4000 you would have been getting the maximum amount (so $10 a day - well, that's the number i'm using in this example lol). so for that time frame, for ftbb purposes, you won't get a top up. BUT, for the first couple of months, where you had your estimate at 22000, you would have gotten NO ftbb. so for each day prior to you reducing your income, you didn't get that $10 and you are entitled to a top up. because you have qualified for ftbb, you will also get a supplement for ftbb (around $345). so for ftbb you'll get a nice top up

for ftba, it's harder to work out. did you over estimate DH's income for the whole year? the same sort of calculation will occur with a "per day" amount calculated. you'll get a top up provided your combined incomes came in under the limits - how much is dependent on where on the sliding scale your incomes fall. you will also get supplements for all three children - 711ish for the two older kids, and a pro rata amount for Miss E

it will take a few weeks from now for the income details to get from ATO to FAO. if you receive both notices of assessment and 2+ weeks have passed since the date of issue, call FAO to follow up. there have been some processing delays and there are extra things that can be done, but only once certain time frames have elapsed

have i made it as clear as crystal or as clear as mud with all that waffle??

lol

i think this is similar to what we did...
DH started his own biz in Dec 09, we wrote off $29k in expenses, even though we didnt make any profit in those 7 months...(we still spent a sh&t load of money to get it up and runnin)...our accountant took that $29k off DH's full time job (he works two jobs), which meant we over estimated our income by $30k.......
So yes, i think you will get some back.....we got $20k back :o

Wow mbear what a nice surprise for you guys!!

BG - um. Clear as uh.. mud? Sorry, brain is a bit fuzzy today. But to answer your question, I usually over estimate DH's actual income by 5 grand, however, he did some work from home that got some money in (thats why he's not getting a tax return this year) and he had some overtime - so I'm not sure by how much, if any, did we overestimate for him.

So I should at least get the stuff for the kids. Ok, well thats a big chunk of the credit card gone, so that would be good.