Tax agents be warned… you have some “friendly fire” competition. The ATO offers help to taxpayers every year from July to October to lodge their tax return. Its Tax Help program is a network of ATO-trained and accredited community volunteers who provide a free and confidential service to help people who need a little guidance to complete their tax returns online using myTax. Tax agents “friendly fire” competition
Tax Help is available in all capital cities and many country centres across Australia. It is available to taxpayers with a taxable income of $50,000 or less who did not:
work as a contractor, for example a contract cleaner or taxi driverrun a business, including as a sole traderhave partnership or trust matterssell shares or an investment propertyown a rental propertyhave capital gains tax (CGT)receive royaltiesreceive distributions from a trust, other than a managed fundreceive foreign income, other than a foreign pension or annuity.
The volunteers can also help people link their myGov account to the ATO (or create a myGov if one is not already set up), which is necessary to access and start using myTax.
And if you’re at the local shopping centre any time over the Tax Time period, the ATO is also hosting a number of “pop-up” offices or kiosks at various shopping centres around the country. The intent of ATO pop up offices is to:
facilitate take up of its digital products and services, in particular myGov and myTax (those who are not already registered are shown how to do it, or assisted to do it)explain and demonstrate its digital products and services, including the myDeductions apppromote the Australia Post TFN channel to young peoplefacilitate understanding of tax and super obligations relating to new entrants and other individualsassist with questions where appropriate (and if the ATO is unable to answer, it will refer to appropriate channels or get back to them if within its topic area).
A full listing in Excel spreadsheet format of the Tax Help and pop-up kiosk locations can be downloaded below.
#[myGov], [myTax], [tax deductions], [tax refund], [tax time 2016]
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