Australian Tax Return Deadlines: When to Lodge and What to Do If You're Late

A tax return is easy to put off. July feels too early, and then the deadline arrives before you've opened myGov.

Your date depends on who lodges

Each tax return covers one income year, also called the financial year, which runs from 1 July to 30 June. The 2025–26 return covers what you earned from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, and it could go in from 1 July 2026, once that year had ended.

Lodging it yourself gives you until 31 October. When that date lands on a weekend, the deadline moves to the next business day, which is how the 2026 date ended up on a Monday.

A registered tax agent is a tax professional who's registered to prepare and lodge returns for a fee. Most agents can lodge for their clients after 31 October, through a lodgement program they run with the ATO. To be part of it as a new client, or when you're changing agents, you need to contact them before 31 October.

An agent's later date depends on your situation and when you signed up with them, so there isn't one extension date that applies to everyone. Your agent can confirm the date the ATO has for your return.

Already past the date? Lodge it now

A late return goes in the same way as an on-time one, and myTax, the ATO's online service for lodging yourself, stays open after the deadline. Check that each employer's income statement, the yearly summary of your pay and tax, is marked tax ready. Then add any income that isn't filled in for you and include the deductions you have records for. Our guide to your first tax return walks through each step.

You can also hand it to a registered tax agent, though signing up after 31 October doesn't make the return on time.

The ATO says it generally doesn't apply penalties for an isolated late return, and it warns you by phone or in writing before it does. If your return ends in a refund or nothing owing, it generally won't send a late-lodgement penalty notice at all, though the refund only comes once you've lodged. How long a tax refund takes covers what happens next.

What a late penalty adds up to

When the ATO does apply one, it's called the failure to lodge on time penalty. It's counted in penalty units, fixed dollar amounts set in law: one unit for every 28 days the return is overdue, or part of 28 days, up to five units. For a 2025–26 return, a unit is $364.

The count stops once the return is in, so lodging today keeps any penalty from growing.

A penalty notice, if one arrives, sets out the reason, the amount and a due date at least 14 days away. You can ask the ATO to remit it, which means cancelling all or part of it. Lodge first, then explain what happened, how it stopped you lodging and why you didn't ask for more time. The ATO decides each request on your circumstances.

Lodging and paying have separate dates

Lodging the return and paying any tax it shows are two different jobs. Your notice of assessment is the ATO's result once it has processed your return. If it shows an amount owing, that bill has its own due date, and interest can be added to anything still unpaid after it.

A bill you can't cover yet is a reason to lodge, not to wait. Lodging gives you the real amount, and you can contact the ATO about paying it over time. Our guide to a tax bill you can't pay goes through the options.

When the amount is one you can manage, give it a share of the pays before it's due. Clova shows upcoming bills beside your pay, so the tax bill sits next to the money that will cover it.

Give next year's return an earlier start

Your 2026–27 return covers the year you're earning in now. Since 31 October 2027 is a Sunday, it will be due on Monday 1 November 2027 if you lodge it yourself.

Aim for August. Most employers finalise income statements by 14 July and the ATO prefills most of your details by late July, so by August most of the return is ready to check, with months to spare. If you'd like a hand, the ATO's free Tax Help program runs from July to October for people earning $70,000 or less with simple tax affairs.

After a return that ended in a bill, setting aside a little from each pay makes the next one easier to meet, the same way a sinking fund works for other yearly bills. In Clova, a savings goal can hold that money until tax time.

Right now, the one step that matters is getting this year's return in. Everything after that, from a possible bill to next year's date, is easier to plan once it's done.

A note from us

Tax time should be a short job in an ordinary week, not a task that waits until it's overdue. Clova is free with every bank, so keeping tax money in view needn't add another cost to tax time.