Missed the Tax Return Deadline?

Haven't done your tax this year? Or for many years? Contact us before the ATO contacts you. You might even score a surprise refund.

If you've missed the October 31^st tax deadline, there is no need to panic. If you are registered as a client of a registered tax agent, like H&R Block, then you can usually lodge well beyond that deadline without penalty. Tax agents are given concessional extended deadlines which mean that they can lodge returns on behalf of clients up to 15 May each year without incurring any penalty.

However, if you are not yet registered as a client with a tax agent, or you plan to lodge your tax return yourself, you need to be aware that October 31 was the deadline for your return and lodging after that date may result in a late lodgement penalty.

In practice, if you have a refund owing to you (which is around 80% of Australians), H&R Block can usually help you avoid any penalties. Even if you do have a balance owing to the ATO, we can often have penalties and interest remitted if we get you right up to date with your current tax obligations.

We see clients who haven't lodged tax returns for many years, or even many decades in some cases. Often they've been very distressed about what will happen to them and have simply been avoiding it – the ostrich approach. That's how one year can become five years and then 20 years. At H&R Block, we're usually able to go back and lodge returns for all these outstanding years from the information that clients have retained or we can access information directly from the ATO.

In many cases, these clients actually discover that they've had a large refund amount owing to them all this time. As a result, they're able to relieve themselves of the stress that's been building up for many years, plus receive a surprise windfall!

Either way, getting up to date and lodging a late tax return with the ATO sooner rather than later is almost always in a taxpayer's best interest.