Statement of account for income tax

Overview You may receive a statement of account (SOA) for Income Tax transactions from our new Income Tax processing system. A sample SOA (PDF, 161KB) is available for you to view. You can also view a sample of the corresponding new look notice of assessment (PDF, 177KB). The statement of account is designed to keep you up-to-date with your tax account. It provides a summary of payments and transactions made during the statement period and shows any amounts you need to pay or refunds due to you. Who will receive a Statement of Account? You will only receive a statement of account with your income tax notice of assessment (NOA) or notice of amended assessment (NOAA) if you:

 incur a penalty or general interest charge as part of the assessment process  are due to receive credit interest amounts as part of the assessment process  have any credits offset to other debts either other tax debts or debts you have with other government agencies  have other amounts payable/refundable on your account included in the opening balance, or  have lodged returns for multiple financial years on the same day.

If you receive both a notice of assessment and statement of account, they may have different amounts payable or refundable. This is because the statement covers more than just your income tax assessment. The final amount that we are refunding to you, or that you have to pay us, is on the statement of account. Your statement of account will not always come together in the same envelope or at the same time as your notice of assessment. The notice of assessment represents information related to a single event, for example the income tax return for a single year, while the statement of account represents information related to the account as a whole, for example a running balance account of all income tax related transactions. You may also receive a statement of account at other times throughout the year, especially if you have an outstanding balance on your account. Changes The following table describes some key features of the SOA for income tax. Section heading Description Statement of Account (SOA) header The header of the SOA contains details identifying (top section) the client, the period the statement is for and other identifying details.The ATO website is included for further information and online help if required. The SOA includes a unique reference number. This can be found next to Our reference towards the top of the statement. Overdue amount This amount is the amount that is overdue Applies only to accounts in debit. according to the effective (due) date of each (shaded area) transaction processed on the account. There will be cases where transactions are processed during the statement period but are not yet due. These amounts will appear in the ‘Total account balance’ but not the ‘Overdue amount’. This amount is rounded down to the nearest 5 cents. GIC may accrue on the overdue amount until it is paid in full. SOAs issued in the past for activity statement obligations included a forecasted amount of GIC however this is not the case for ICP SOAs. Total account balance This is the closing balance of the account as at the (shaded area) statement end date and may be different to the’ Overdue amount’ as explained above. Statement of Account summary section This section summarises the balance of the roles in (middle area) a particular account. ‘Role’ is the term used in our ICP system for a type of payment or obligation. Examples of roles that may appear in an individuals income tax account are:

 Income tax  General interest charge  HELP (Higher Education Loan repayment).

If the balance on any role is 0.00 (nil) as at the statement end date it will not appear in this section. Payment Slip / Refund cheque / EFT details The SOA may be issued with a payment slip, refund cheque or EFT details if the refund is to be received by EFT. Important information about your statement (on The important information section (on page 2 – on page 2 – on the back of page 1 of the SOA) the back of page 1 of the SOA) provides tailored information and explanation of terms depending on what appears on the statement itself. Transaction list This section provides details of all the transactions (page 3) processed on your account for the statement period against each role within your account. If there are other amounts due and payable on your account as at the start date of the SOA these amounts will be included in the opening balance amount. An explanation of the statement transactions, process date, effective date etc. are in the ‘important information’ section on page 2 – on the back of page 1 of the SOA. Net year to date amounts Provides an interest and role summary report for the last financial year and the current financial year. The purpose of this table is to provide the interest amounts that need to be included in tax returns as either ‘Deductible Interest Expense’ or ‘Assessable Interest Income’. More information You can view the information flyer - Your new statement of account (PDF, 121KB). For information about the new look Notice of assessment (NOA) refer to Notice of assessment for income tax. View frequently asked questions about the new SOA and NOA. For more information about ICP refer to About integrated core processing (ICP). Last Modified: Thursday, 1 April 2010

Relying on our information - our commitment to you We are committed to providing you with advice and guidance you can rely on, so we make every effort to ensure that what we give you is correct. If you follow our advice or guidance and it turns out to be incorrect, or it is misleading and you make a mistake as a result, we will take that into account when determining what action, if any, we should take. Some of the advice and guidance on this website applies to a specific financial year. This is clearly marked. Make sure you have the information for the right year before making decisions based on that information. If you feel that our advice and guidance does not fully cover your circumstances, or you are unsure how it applies to you, contact us or seek professional advice. Copyright © Commonwealth of Australia This work is copyright. You may download, display, print and reproduce this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other rights are reserved. Requests for further authorisation should be directed to the Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Copyright Law Branch, Attorney-General’s Department, Robert Garran Offices, National Circuit, BARTON ACT 2600 or posted at http://www.ag.gov.au/cca.