Submitted 1 year ago by Mountaineer@lemmy.world to australia@aussie.zone
The ATO online solution is more than enough for 90 of people, comparing it to other systems I've seen internationally (like the US / Canada), it's a godsend.
Great to have a platform we're it's relatively easy to put in your income, dedications and other crap and get a reasonable assessment without having to pay some leach company to do fuck all.
It’s almost too easy these days. I keep feeling like I’m missing something because it’s so quick.
I had some big problems last year trying to figure out claiming dividends for some investments. After getting frustrated and giving up, I came back a month later to try again and it was all automatically filled in. Apart from that small hiccup it really is too easy.
I lived in NZ for a while, it was heaps better over there you don’t need to do anything, they just send you a refund or bill, then if you have any other deductions you can claim those. Great for forgetful/lazy people like me.
Completely unrelated, I somehow forgot to file last year so need to do two now <facepalm>
Can I do that through ATO or do I need an agent?
Also have shit memory for these things (yay ADHD) so from experience yes you can do it through the ATO.
I don’t remember (lol) the steps but I think you just choose which tax year you want. It’s pretty easy is what I do remember!
They give you a to-do list of all the tax years you need to file.
Anyone who owns a rental property as well, do you lodge directly via the ATO or use a tax agent there?
I have a rental property. I used an agent for a number of years but have moved to doing it myself the last few years. You do 90% of the work by collating all the numbers for the agent, then they charge you hundreds to type them into the right boxes.
If you’re not afraid of a bit of googling, it’s not that hard to do it yourself.
Thanks. Yeah that’s the feeling I’ve been getting.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 year ago
From the title, I assumed this was some neat third-party tool. It didn’t occur to me that they would be talking about the official tool. I had no idea that barely a third of people used it. I just assumed that’s how most people would do it. It’s how I’ve always done it, and until this year (thanks to having done a few more complicated tax things like selling loads of shares and paying off HECS early) I had never even considered doing it any other way. It’s literally free and simple as.