Before you rush in and make a purchase it is worth visiting the ATOs Website at www.ato.gov.au and finding out what sort of tax information you will be required to provide whether you are using the e
Before you rush in and make a purchase it is worth visiting the ATOs Website at www.ato.gov.au and finding out what sort of tax information you will be required to provide whether you are using the e-Tax electronic lodgement or the old fashion Tax Pack. Dont do it as a last minute thing because the site consists of several hundred pages and, like the Tax Pack, is not always easy to navigate.
If you are serious about preparing to do your own tax return and finding software to help you, put aside several hours to study the site, make sure there is plenty of paper in the printer and that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. The ATO has provided hundreds of PDF documents for download, including the entire tax pack, which has been split into multiple files one for each section and question.
If English is not your native language, dont worry: the site provides tax information in 25 languages ranging from Arabic to Vietnamese. However, that is no guarantee it will be any easier to understand.
The sites opening page looks harmless enough. The main menu provides links to tax information for individuals, businesses, non-profit organisations and tax and superannuation professionals. However, once you make your selection you enter a whole different world, devoid of pictures and threatening to drown under a sea of tax related text.
For example, click on the For Individuals icon and you are taken to a new menu with five key categories and dozens of sub-categories. While it looks daunting at first, you will find as you go deeper into the site that several of the sub categories are cross-referenced and will take to the same page.
If you are planning to do your own tax return it pays to start with the Pay Tax section, which has six key sub categories set in descending order of importance. You can select either Learning about taxes and payments or Completing and lodging a tax return to learn what your tax responsibilities are. Click on Learning about taxes and payments and you will be confronted by yet another menu of categories and sub-menus dealing with different types of taxes and taxpayers. Depending on your current knowledge, you can spend a few hours following the links from the page into the bowels of the site and even to other Government sites. There are more than a dozen screens of links to scroll through, and while few people will need to follow all of them, be prepared to have to click on several and to keep digging to get all of the information you require.
The Completing and lodging a tax return page has only slightly less information and repeats most of the links from the Learning page, so if you start with either page there is usually no need to go to the other.
Getting help doing your tax return will tell you whether you actually need to lodge one at all, and if so, how to prepare it and where to lodge it. The page also provides links to a list of registered tax agents, a copy of the tax pack and other advice relating to specific rulings and the use of ATO approved stationery.
The Paying your tax page provides explanations on Pay As You Go, Superannuation and Eligible Termination Payments and general information on how to use Bill Pay and other forms of electronic funds transfer to pay your tax bill.
To show that it isnt totally heartless, the ATO has also included a link to a page outlining your options if you are having difficulty paying you tax bill, and one to information on how to find out when you are going to get your refund.
Each page, no matter what the sub-category, has additional links across to What you can claim and Forms, calculators and tax rates. The latter is where you will find information on applying for and using the e-Tax software, while What you can claim page is a must for anyone doing their own return and also provides a lot information particularly relating to capital gains tax on investments that will help you set up and get the best out of you personal finance software at tax time.