Q re: tax return

[Danni]

Does anyone know if you have to enter the details from group certificates where you earnt a small amount of money but paid ZERO tax?

[Pandora]

i dont htink you do a tax return if you didnt pay any tax.

[Meo]

A tax return is when your employer has withheld tax from your pay, but sent too much to the ATO on your behalf so the tax office refunds that to you when you advise them of the total amount you earnt for the financial year.

I think you do need to put the info on the group certificate into your tax return, Mabello, because this pay affects your total income for the year, even though you may not have paid tax from it.

[Danni]

Ray, i will need to do a tax return which relates to another employer with a seperate group certificate where i DID pay tax... does that make sense?

[Astrid]

Yes - you do need to enter all payment summaries (group certs is a very out of date term) regardless of whether tax is withheld or not. Even if your total income means you are below the tax free threshold and therefor do not have to pay tax, they still need to know your income for things like Family Tax Benefit. Basically you have worked, earned an income, therefor the taxman likes to know.

[Danni]

oh yeah , i forgot about ftb

thanks astrid!

[BrightSparkles]

So with FTB... do we get something from centrelink with this info??? This will be the first time i've done a tax return since DD being born.

[catherinemoses]

As far as I know FTB is not taxable income.

The info from your tax return will be sent to Clink and they will match it against your estimates and either pay you if it was under or make you repay them if it was over.

I think that is what happens anyway!

[Visitor7]

If you had any sort of taxable income (doesn't matter how much), then you do a tax return. There is a tax-free cut off of about $6000 before you have to start paying tax, but you are still required to lodge a tax return.
If you're receiving FTB payments, you won't receive anything from Centrelink as it's not a taxable income. So you won't need to put the amount you've received.

[BrightSparkles]

ok.
So because we've over estimated our income by ALLOT because my maths isn't very good(hmmmm i think it was about $10 - $15K, can I blame baby brain at the time of lodging this???)... LOL i think i should have been recieving part of the FTB... will centrelink pay me the difference with my tax return or separatley???

[Visitor7]

Yes. Once your tax returns (for you and dh) have been lodged with ATO, you will be automatically paid from Centrelink for anything you are owed.

[BrightSparkles]

Awesome!! Should get some nice money back in time for the wedding then YAY!!!

[Floweryfields]

You will need to include it, because it will affect your total overall income. You may actually have to pay tax on the income if the tax you paid on the other income isn't enough to cover both.