We explain the Tax Refund process & why you might still be waiting
So… you’ve lodge your Tax Return (well done! 😊) & now you’re patiently waiting for the cash to hit your account. But where is it? One of the most common questions faced by our Numbers Geeks during tax time is ‘Where is my refund?” So we thought it would be helpful to explain our refund process, as well as the estimated timeframe.
One Click Life have created our online tax lodgement system to make things as simple as possible. During the lodgement process, we communicate directly with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) while you wait, to get as much info for you as possible. But the next step takes a little bit longer.
When you hit the ‘LODGE’ button on your online Tax Return, your lodgement is sent to the ATO for review. The average time for them to review each Aussie’s Tax Return & process a refund is approximately 12- 14 business days. (that’s between 2 & 3 weeks)
What’s next?
Next, when the ATO have finished process your Tax Return, they will issue a ‘Notice of Assessment’ to you. This is a document that informs you of any changes to the refund amount & confirms the exact figure of your Tax Refund (how much money you’re getting back)
The ATO then transfers your refund to our Trust Account. From there we deduct our fee from your refund* & then transfer you the rest within 3 business days. The direct deposit from our account to yours can take anywhere between a couple of hours, to 2 business days, depending on which bank you use.
In general, most of our clients receive their refunds faster than 14 business days. There might be delays in ATO processing or bank transfer delays, but we do our best to send your refund out within 24 business hours of it entering our Trust Account.
Our Fee
*You’ll either receive an invoice when you lodge, our bill taken from your refund, or an invoice as part of our end of month process. If you have any questions regarding your invoice, feel free to contact us. The invoice will come out from Mobile Business Devices Pty Ltd, Trading As One Click Life.
Why it might take a little bit longer…
Some Tax Returns, however, might take a bit longer than the usual for the ATO to process. Here are a couple of reasons why this might happen:
If you lodge an Overdue Tax Return. The ATO tends to prioritise current year Tax Returns before processing any overdue lodgements from previous years – this may lead to a slower processing time.
If you need to lodge an overdue Tax Return, check out our step-by-step guide
If you lodge an Amended Tax Return. The ATO would take more time to process this, as they would have to bring up the original lodgement and compare the differences between the two before confirming the changes made are legitimate.
Whilst One Click Life is the quickest, easiest & fuss-free ways to lodge your online Tax Return, once you’ve hit ‘lodge’, some things are out of our hands & in the ATO’s.
Check the progress of your Tax Return with the ATO
If you have any questions or problems along the way, our Life Admin team are more than happy to help & check the progress of your lodgement, so feel free to call us on 1300 707 117 or email [email protected]