change in income estimate?? Help?

[M22]

hi guys

i noticed that my FTB amount has increased and upon receiving a letter today. My parters income has decreased. which would explain the increase but what i am wonder is...

I didn't change the income, neither did my partner- so why would it change?

any insight would be appreciate- last thing i want to do is pay them back

[briggsy's girl]

you would have gotten a letter in may/june asking you to provide an income estimate for the new financial year by the middle of june. if you didn't provide an estimate, the system is set up to automatically increase your estimate by 5% on the previous numbers you had there (so if you had 5000 it would become 5250) - the number is plucked from the average pay increase each year as reported by the bureau of statistics. it is done to stop you getting an overpayment. if your income is not truly reflected by those numbers, you can go and change them yourself

another thing to keep in mind - if you estimate for the year something like 30000 but when you do a previous year income taaxx return, you income from that year is within 5% of that number (or higher) the system will suggest an uplift and will automatically do it if you don't contact fao and redo your estimate. it's all automated to try and stop people getting any overpayments.

[Just Me]

If your FTB has increased it could be that the payments have increased to keep up with inflation etc - payments increase a couple of times a year to keep up with the indexed price of living (probably not the best way to describe it but my brain is fried at the moment ). We received 2 statements about FTB in the last fortnight - neither have had an income change but the second was showed our FTB had increased despite both being for the same payment dates. Does that make sense?

[M22]

ooh- BG!! YTB ( your the best- my new made up acronym) but the income amount decreased by about $4k -

serious confusedness now

PS i jsut notice E is one- goodness time flies!

[M22]

Thanks JM - but i am confused about how they got the change of income

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[briggsy's girl]

the payments all went up on july 1 to do with the new income thresholds as well - so decreased income of 4k could mean as much as 800 extra per year (depending on income levels) - so yeah, your decreased income estimate would result in higher payments in the bank

sorry, i misread the OP! oops!

[briggsy's girl]

ftb amounts only go up once per year (in july - as it's an annual payment) - other payments are indexed march and september for normal CPI increases.

ftb can be a complex one to work out - but basically you're paid an amount (per day) based on your income estimate. when your fortnight crosses from june to july, even on the same income estimate, the amount for the june days will be less than the amount for the july days. they don't enter the july thresholds until right at the end of the month, so you would get a letter saying you were getting a fornight based on the june daily rate, and then when the system is updated, another saying the amount because you would get paid the july days at a higher rate

hope that makes sense!

[M22]

but how would it decrease if i didn't decreased it though?/ they have info form ATO? we havent lodge anything yet?

[briggsy's girl]

ummm, did you put in an estimate in june?

ftba is based on both of your incomes, ftbb just on the lower income earner. so if you had your estimate at something like 4k for you, 60k for him, your ftba estimate would be 64k, ftbb would be 4k. if you updated your income estimate to reflect you have nil income and he has the same, your ftba would then be just his income 60k, ftbb would be 0. so it's not HIS income that has dropped, it's the combined income kwim?

it's so hard without having actual numbers, but hopefully that helps!

[M22]

oohh- my income is nil but last year it was 200. so maybe that it si a bit clearee now

anyways will call them and see

[Just Me]

ftb amounts only go up once per year (in july - as it's an annual payment) - other payments are indexed march and september for normal CPI increases.

Those are the technical terms that I couldn't think of

[M22]

yeah tried to call but they must be getting slammed -it's an engaged signal.- poor guys

[The[cookie]Doctor]

m22 i called this morning for something completely different and the auto voice recognition system was so backed up it took nine minutes for it to find my CRN...!! and that was just the voice recog!

It seems strange they would automatically decrease it but the easiest way to fix it is obviously to call - if and when you manage to get through!

[M22]

just thought i would update- i called them and they said it was a computer generated decrease-not sure why- so i upped out income again better to be safe than sorry!!
thanx for all your help guys!