centerlink and self employed?

[sassy123]

ok so i got my letter to update our income for our payments and i read though the little book thing and it says that your income you claim for centerlink my not be the same as wat the ATO let you claim.
I am self employed and i thought i did mine off profit or loss but in this book the way i read it i shold be puttin down my weekly earnings? is this right cause if it is then there is a huge dif.
I told cl at the start that i was self employed and they told me to put down wat i think then again i was told that it was profit and loss. y do other self employed people have to put a thing in fortnightly adn i dont. Am i doing something wrong.

my income is about 24k b4 all my deductions and all that comes out then goes down to between 12 and 16 after. i put down 16k for my estimate this yr. am i goign to get a big bill?

[Pretty Butterfly]

I done my statements every 3 months if I remember correctly.

Yep, deductions are different from ATO and Centrelink.

Example. I done FDC. I was able to deduct rent, elec, gas, food nappies, wipes books, toys etc as expenses for the ATO, no worries.

Centrelink, however don't allow for all of these.

So whilst my "earnings" for ATO may of been say, $20,000, for Centrelink it may of been $24,000 as they allowed less deductions.

So you will need to put in a detailed statement, and they will decide what your "income" was. A pain, but avoids overpayment.

[sassy123]

crap i do FDC.
i told them all this and they still said do wat i do for ATO. i have asked like 3 centerlink people and they all say the same.
i dont knwo wat to do now.
i think i might change mine to end of yr payment just to be sure.

[briggsy's girl]

Sassy - if you claim a parenting payment (similar to newstart for low income families) you will need to provide either tax statements for your business (if it's been running more than a year) or profit and loss statements every few months

if however you're only receiving FTB - you ONLY need to provide an estimate of your income as it comes back from the ATO at tax time

HTH

[Pretty Butterfly]

Oh, yep, BG is right!!! I was on PPS at the time, but if you only get FTB, just do your tax, then it will go through through both departments.

Can you leave all your FTB till end of year and collect it all then? That way you'll get exactly what your supposed to.

[sassy123]

thanks for that. it p's me off cause i have asked so many times and i never get the same answer and i have never been told that i have to report anything at all.
i am just worried that i am gettin paid too much CCB. i dont want to have to pay back a huge bill.
i guess i will find out in a month lol.

[briggsy's girl]

if you're only getting payments based on income estimates (ftb, ccb) as opposed to ACTUAL income payments (PPP, PPS, newstart, disability etc) you'll be fine - it will go on your actual taxable income at tax time - it's worked on an estimate during the year and then reconciled at tax time

[sassy123]

yeah i am only gettin the ftb and ccb.