Balancing your Family Assistance payments

Not all people who receive family assistance have to do the same thing at tax time, what you have to do is based on your own circumstances. Our Tax Time Checker is a great place to start if you’re unsure what we need from you in order to balance your payments. Just enter a few details about your situation and the Tax Time Checker will let you know what we need from you before we can balance your payments. You can find the Tax Time Checker here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window) If you’ve gone through the Tax Time Checker and you were told you don’t need to do anything, Great! This means you either receive Child Care Rebate only or were single for the entire 2015/16 financial year and receiving an income support payment, such as Parenting Payment, for the full 2015/16 financial year. In these situations, we have all the information we need and you’re not required to do anything or submit anything for us to balance your payments. You can find out when your Family Tax Benefit payments will be balanced here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window) Please be aware we balance child care payments separately to Family Tax Benefit payments as we also need to check attendance information provided to us by your child care provider to confirm you were paid correctly for this attendance throughout the 2015-16 financial year. We start balancing your child care payments from Monday 25 July to ensure all child care attendance information for the year is included when we do this check. Once we’ve balanced your payments we’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.
If you don’t need to lodge a tax return you’ll need to complete an update in your online account or complete a task in the Express Plus mobile app to declare you don’t need to lodge a tax return and confirm your income. The task or menu selection will not appear until the day after you receive your last Family Tax Benefit payment for the financial year, which will be between 4-15 July. If you have a partner, they will also need to complete the non-lodger declaration online or lodge a tax return before your payments can be balanced. If you’re single, we’ll balance your FTB payments and you should receive any supplements or top up payments you may be entitled to within 7 days from the date you complete the online task and confirm your income. If you have a partner, when we can balance your payments depends on whether your partner needs to lodge a tax return or not.
If you need to lodge a tax return please visit the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website for information about this here: https://www.ato.gov.au/ (opens in new window) Once you’ve lodged your tax return you don’t need to do anything else, we get the information from the ATO. It’s important to know it can take up to 28 days from the date you receive your notice of assessment for our department to receive this information and to balance your FTB payments. If you have a partner, they will also need to complete the non-lodger declaration online or lodge a tax return before your payments can be balanced. If you didn’t receive family and child care assistance during the 2015-16 financial year and you believe you’re eligible, you’ll need to submit an online claim for these payments. When we assess your Family Tax Benefit claim we’ll also assess your eligibility for Family Tax Benefit supplements. There’s more information about Family Tax Benefit and how to claim here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/family-tax-benefit (opens in new window). There’s more info on how to child care assistance here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/subjects/assistance-child-care-fees (opens in new window)

If you don’t need to lodge a tax return for the 2015-16 financial year you need to let us know by completing an update in your Centrelink online account or completing a task in your Express Plus mobile app. The task or menu selection will not appear until the day after you receive your last Family Tax Benefit payment for the financial year, which will be between 4-15 July.When you go online or use your mobile app to complete your online declaration, any income you’ve received from us will be prefilled using information stored on your and/or your partner’s record. You can complete the online declaration using your Centrelink online account through myGov or your Express Plus Centrelink app. You need to confirm your income with us for the 2015-16 financial year by 30 June 2017. You’ll need to confirm with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) whether you need to tell them you aren’t lodging a tax return. In some situations where you’ve told us you don’t need to lodge we may have to refer you to the ATO to check your details and either lodge a tax return or complete a ‘Non-lodgement Advice’. This will happen where circumstances indicate you do need to lodge, for example where you or your partner had taxable income above the tax free threshold ($18,200 for 2015-16) or were entitled to receive, or had to pay child support. If you lodge a tax return, keep in mind it can take up to 28 days from the date you receive your notice of assessment for our department to receive this information and to balance your FTB payments. If you complete a ‘Non-lodgement advice’, it can take up to 28 days from when the ATO receives this information for us to balance your payments. Once we’ve balanced your payments we’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

If you’re unsure if you need to lodge a tax return, you should check with the ATO. You can find more information here: https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Tax-return/2016/Before-you-start/Do-you-need-to-lodge-a-tax-return–2016/ (opens in new window)

If you’ve completed a non-lodgement advice with the ATO for the 2015-16 financial year, you still need to let us know and confirm your income for the year. The quickest and easiest way to do this is with your Centrelink online account through myGov or a task in your Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. The task or menu selection will not appear until the day after you receive your last Family Tax Benefit payment for the financial year, which will be between 4-15 July.When you go online to complete your declaration, income will be prefilled using information stored on your and/or your partner’s record. You can complete the declaration using your Centrelink online account through myGov or your Express Plus Centrelink app. You need to confirm your income with us for the 2015-16 financial year by 30 June 2017. There’s more information about this here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

If you pay or receive child support and you don’t need to lodge a tax return, you still need to tell Child Support what your taxable income is. You can do this through your Child Support online account through myGov, or the Express Plus Child Support mobile app. You can find out more here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

If you’re unsure whether you need to lodge a tax return we recommend you check with the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO): https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Tax-return/2016/Before-you-start/Do-you-need-to-lodge-a-tax-return–2016/ (opens in a new tab) If you find that you don’t need to lodge a tax return for the 2015-16 financial year you’ll need to let us know by completing the online task in your Centrelink online account through myGov or the Express Plus Centrelink app. If you do need to lodge a tax return you’ll need to do this with the ATO. There’s more information here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in a new tab) Our tax Time Checker is a great place to start if you’re unsure what we need from you in order to balance your payments. Just enter a few details about the payments you receive from us and your family’s circumstances, and the Tax Time Checker will let you know what we need from you before we can balance your payments. You can find the Tax Time Checker on this page: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in a new window)

If you’re unsure whether you have received an income support payment for the entire financial year, you can check your payment history using your Centrelink online account through myGov or the Centrelink Express Plus mobile app. If you haven’t been single and receiving an income support payment for the entire financial year, our tax Time Checker is a great place to start if you’re unsure what we need from you in order to balance your payments. You can find the Tax Time Checker on this page: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

If you were single and receiving an income support payment, such as Parenting Payment, for the entire financial year, we will automatically balance your payments. This includes if you didn’t receive the maximum rate of payment due to income. You can find the date your FTB payments will be balanced here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

If you’ve completed the non-lodger declaration and you didn’t need to, there’s no need to worry. Doing this won’t affect the timing of when we balance your payments – it won’t cause a delay, nor will it trigger the process.

We use your and your partner’s adjusted taxable income to work out your entitlement to family assistance payments. You can find out what is included in adjusted taxable income here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/adjusted-taxable-income (opens in new window) If you receive a taxable payment, such as Parental Leave Pay, Dad and Partner Pay, Parenting Payment or Newstart Allowance, you need to include these payments in your estimate of taxable income. You also need to include non-taxable payments such as such as Carer Payment or Disability Support Pension in your estimate of tax free pensions and benefits. Family Tax Benefit, Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate are not counted as part of your adjusted taxable income, so you don’t need to include them in your family income estimate.

If the information pre-filled into your non-lodger declaration isn’t correct you can easily update this information when completing the declaration. All you need to do is replace the pre-filled information with the correct amounts.

Pre-fill income information won’t be available if you are completing the update using a One Time Access Code. If there is no information pre-filled in your non-lodger declaration you will need to enter the information manually. You can choose to log in to your online Centrelink account or Express Plus mobile app to complete your non-lodgement advice. If you are logged in then your income details will be prefilled using income information held on your and/or your partner’s/ex-partner’s record.

It’s important that you check all the information in your non-lodger declaration carefully before submitting it. If you’ve made an error in your non-lodger declaration and your payments have not yet been balanced, you may be able to complete the update again and override the information previously entered. To update the information provided you simply log into your Centrelink online account through myGov and start the online declaration again. If you’ve made an error and your payments have been balanced, you will not be able to update this information online and you need to call us on 136 150 so we can assist you.

If you don’t have a task to complete in your Centrelink online account via myGov or your Centrelink Express Plus app, you may not need to do anything else in order for us to balance your payments. It could also be that you have already completed an online declaration to tell us you’re not required to lodge tax return (and confirmed your income details). In this situation, we won’t send you an online task to complete as you’ve already done this. Our tax Time Checker is a great place to start if you’re unsure what we need from you in order to balance your payments. You can find the Tax Time Checker here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

As part of the online declaration, you can generally provide information on your current partner’s behalf to tell us they don’t need to lodge a tax return and confirm their income for the 2015/16 financial year. However, if your current partner is also receiving or claiming family or child care payments for children from a previous relationship, you may not be able to provide this information on their behalf. In this situation, your partner will need to complete the online declaration via their online account or the Express Plus Centrelink app.

In some situations where you’ve told us you don’t need to lodge we may have to refer you to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to check your details and either lodge a tax return or complete a ‘Non-lodgement Advice’. This will happen where circumstances indicate you do need to lodge, for example where you or your partner had taxable income above the tax free threshold ($18,200 for 2015-16) or were entitled to receive, or had to pay child support. Once you have submitted this information to the ATO it can take up to 28 days from when you receive your Notice of Assessment for us to receive your actual income details from the ATO and complete the balancing of your FTB. It’s important to note that we can only accept this information from the ATO and once we have all the necessary information we can balance your payments. Once we’ve balanced your payments we’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

The time frame for balancing your family assistance payments depends on your individual circumstances. There’s a general guide on when you can expect your family and child care payments to be balanced. Our tax Time Checker is a great place to start if you’re unsure what we need from you in order to balance your payments. You can find the Tax Time Checker here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

We balance child care payments separately to Family Tax Benefit payments as we also need to check attendance information provided to us by your child care provider to confirm you were paid correctly for this attendance throughout the 2015-16 financial year. We start balancing your child care payments from the fourth Monday in July so all child care attendance information for the year is included when we do this check. This will start from Monday 25 July 2016 and it will take at least two weeks to get through the number of customer records that need to be checked. Your child care payments will only be balanced in this period if we also have your actual income details, where required, or you have advised you are not required to lodge a tax return. Once we’ve balanced your payments we’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

It’s important to remember everyone’s circumstances are different and for most people, we will need information from you as well as information from other departments to balance their payments, which can take some time. For customers who have been single and receiving an income support payment for the entire financial year, they are exempt from the income test. This means we don’t need additional information to balance their payments so we’re able to let them know when their payments will be balanced. Our tax Time Checker is a great place to start if you’re unsure what we need from you in order to balance your payments. You can find the Tax Time Checker here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

In order to have your payments balanced automatically, you must have been single and receiving an income support payment for the entire financial year. If you didn’t meet both these criteria for any part of the financial year, we will need extra information in order to balance your payments. Our tax Time Checker is a great place to start if you’re unsure what we need from you in order to balance your payments. You can find the Tax Time Checker here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

We balance child care payments separately to FTB payments. We start balancing your child care payments from the fourth Monday in July so all child care attendance information for the year is included when we do this check. This will start from Monday 25 July 2016 and it will take at least two weeks to get through the number of customer records that need to be checked. Your child care payments will only be balanced in this period if we also have your actual income details, where required, or you have advised you are not required to lodge a tax return. If you receive Child Care Rebate only your payments will be balanced automatically, we don’t need any further information from you. Once we’ve balanced your payments we’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. You can find out how we balance your child care payments here http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/child-care-benefit/balancing-your-child-care-payments (opens in new window)

It can take up to 28 days from when you receive your Notice of Assessment for us to receive your actual income details from the ATO and complete the balancing of your payments. It’s important to note that we can only accept this information from the ATO and once we have this information we can balance your payments. Once we’ve balanced your payments we’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. You can find out how we balance your family assistance payments here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

It can take up to 28 days from when your partner receives their Notice of Assessment for us to receive their actual income details from the ATO. It’s important to note that we can only accept this information from the ATO and once we have all the necessary information we can balance your payments. If you haven’t already, you’ll also need to complete the non-lodger declaration online for yourself or lodge a tax return before your payments can be balanced. Once we’ve balanced your payments we’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. You can find out how we balance your family assistance payments here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

It can take up to 28 days from when you and your partner receive your Notice of Assessment for us to receive your actual income details from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). It’s important to note that we can only accept this information from the ATO and once we have all the necessary information we can balance your payments. If you and your partner have both lodged tax returns and received your Notices of Assessment from the Australian Taxation Office more than 28 days ago, and your payments have not been balanced, please call us on 136 150. Make sure you have your Notices of Assessment with you when you call, we’ll need the assessment number and date the returns were assessed to follow up with the ATO. Once we’ve balanced your payments we’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

You can find out what information we’re waiting for using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. Once you’ve logged in to the Express Plus Centrelink app, go to ‘Finances’. if your payment has ‘in progress’ or ‘waiting’ then there will be three little dots ‘…’ to the right of it. If you click the three dots, this will take you into a screen which will explain why your payments haven’t been balanced yet and any information we are waiting for. Our tax Time Checker is also a great place to start if you’re unsure what we need from you in order to balance your payments. You can find the Tax Time Checker here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

If we require any information from other departments, this information can take some time to reach us. For example, it takes up to 28 days from the date you receive your Notice of Assessment from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for your actual income information to reach us and for us to balance your payments. You can find out what information we’re waiting for using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. Once you’ve logged in to the Express Plus Centrelink app, go to ‘Finances’. if your payment has ‘in progress’ or ‘waiting’ then there will be three little dots ‘…’ to the right of it. If you click the three dots, this will take you into a screen which will explain why your payments haven’t been balanced yet and any information we are waiting for.

When you complete the online task to let us know you don’t need to lodge a tax return and confirm your income, we will pre-fill income details for you based on the information you and your partner (if you have one) have already provided to us. If you’re unsure what is included, there is information in the task to help you. You don’t need to include Family Tax Benefit, Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate in your non-lodgement declaration.

When you complete the online task to let us know you don’t need to lodge a tax return and confirm your income, we will pre-fill income details for you based on the information you and your partner (if you have one) have already provided to us. Taxable income is your gross income minus allowable deductions. It includes income from wages, a business, investments, lump sum payments and any taxable pensions or benefits you receive from us. Income under the tax free threshold is still counted as taxable income. Parental Leave Pay, Parenting Payment, Austudy, Newstart Allowance and Dad and Partner Pay are taxable payments. If you receive any of these payments from us you’ll need to include this information in your taxable income so we can balance your payments. Carer Payment and Disability Support Pension are not included in your taxable income, however they will be included in the ‘Tax free pensions and benefits’ field. Other payments that aren’t included as taxable income include; Rent Assistance, Newborn upfront payment, Large Family Supplement, low income supplement, newborn supplement, multiple birth allowance, Single Income Family Supplement, Stillborn baby payment and Pensioner Education Supplement. You can find a list of non-taxable payments here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/paying-tax-centrelink-payment (opens in new window) You don’t need to include Family Tax Benefit, Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate in your non-lodgement declaration.

If you weren’t partnered for the entire financial year, your partner’s income will only affect payments during the period in which you were considered partnered.

There are special rules in place to ensure you’re not disadvantaged if an ex-partner doesn’t lodge a tax return. If you’re in this situation, the best thing to do is to provide the information we need from you. We’ll balance your payments after your income details have been confirmed, using the income estimate provided for your ex-partner. At a later date, if your ex-partner does lodge a tax return or tells us they don’t need to lodge a tax return, we’ll balance your family and child care payments again using their revised income details.

At the end of the 2015-16 financial year we’ll balance your payments to check that you were paid the correct amount. When we balance your payments we’ll assess your eligibility for any supplements including the Family Tax Benefit Part A supplement, Family Tax Benefit Part B supplement and Single Income Family supplement. Once your payments have been balanced we’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. You may need to do something for us to balance your payments. If you’re not sure what you need to do, our Tax Time Checker is a great place to start. All you need to do is enter a few details about the payments your family receives from us and your family’s circumstances, and the Tax Time Checker will let you know what we need from you before we can balance your payments. You can find the Tax Time Checker here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

If you’re eligible, you may receive a Family Tax Benefit Part A supplement of up to $726.35 for each child and a Family Tax Benefit Part B supplement of up to $354.05 per family. If you’re eligible, you may also receive a Single Income Family supplement of up to $300 per family. From 1 January 2016 immunisation requirements for the FTB Part A supplement changed. If your child does not meet the new immunisation requirements you won’t be paid the FTB Part A supplement for that child for any days after 1 January 2016. However you may have received the 2015/16 FTB Part A supplement for days from 1 July 2015 to 31 December 2015 if your child met the pre-1 January 2016 immunisation requirements due to a registered vaccination objection or they did not need to meet the immunisation requirements. If your 2015/16 FTB Part A supplement isn’t fully paid because immunisation requirements haven’t been met, you have 1 year from the end of the financial year (so until 30 June 2017 for the 2015/16 financial year) to meet the requirements and still be paid the supplement. It’s important to note that the amount of supplement you are paid may vary depending on your family’s actual income and circumstances. If you have been overpaid family assistance we may use the supplements to recover the overpayment. You can find out more about how we balance your payments, including links to details of the supplements, here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

If you’re eligible for family assistance supplements they will be paid to you once your payments have been balanced. We’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. From 1 January 2016 immunisation requirements for the FTB Part A supplement changed. If your child does not meet the new immunisation requirements you won’t be paid the FTB Part A supplement for that child for any days after 1 January 2016. However you may have received the 2015/16 FTB Part A supplement for days from 1 July 2015 to 31 December 2015 if your child met the pre-1 January 2016 immunisation requirements due to a registered vaccination objection or they did not need to meet the immunisation requirements. If your 2015/16 FTB Part A supplement isn’t fully paid because immunisation requirements haven’t been met, you have 1 year from the end of the financial year (so until 30 June 2017 for the 2015/16 financial year) to meet the requirements and still be paid the supplement. It’s important to note that the amount of supplement you are paid may vary depending on your family’s actual income and circumstances. If you have been overpaid family assistance we may use the supplements to recover the overpayment. You can find out more about how we balance your payments, including links to details of the supplements, here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

If you didn’t receive Family Tax Benefit for the full financial year, any supplement payments you are eligible for will be paid on a pro-rata basis. This means, if you’re eligible, you’ll be paid the supplement payment for the portion of the year you were entitled to receive Family Tax Benefit. If you’re eligible for family assistance supplements they will be paid to you once your payments have been balanced. We’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. You can find out more about how we balance your payments, including links to details of the supplements, here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

There are no changes to the FTB Part A and Part B supplements amounts for customers when the 2015-16 financial year is reconciled. The FTB Part A and Part B supplement amounts are $726.35 and $354.05 respectively. In December 2015, there was proposal announced for Family Tax Benefit Part A and Part B supplements to be phased out over a three year period, however this measure is subject to the passage of legislation.

From 1 January 2016 immunisation requirements for the FTB Part A supplement changed. If your child does not meet the new immunisation requirements you won’t be paid the FTB Part A supplement for that child for any days after 1 January 2016. However you may have received the 2015/16 FTB Part A supplement for days from 1 July 2015 to 31 December 2015 if your child met the pre-1 January 2016 immunisation requirements due to a registered vaccination objection or they did not need to meet the immunisation requirements. If your 2015/16 FTB Part A supplement isn’t fully paid because immunisation requirements haven’t been met, you have 1 year from the end of the financial year (so until 30 June 2017 for the 2015/16 financial year) to meet the requirements and still be paid the supplement. The extended immunisation requirements do not affect the FTB Part B supplement.

When we balance your payments we compare the amount of Family Tax Benefit and Child Care Benefit for approved care we paid you (based on the family income estimate you gave us), against the amount you’re entitled to receive (this is based on your actual family income for that financial year). If you’ve been overpaid, you’ll have to pay this amount back. We will send you an accounts payable if this occurs. We will recover overpayments from future family assistance payments, including top-up payments, supplement payments or tax refunds. You can find out more about how your family assistance payments are balanced here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window) Once we have determined how much Child Care Benefit you were entitled to, any Child Care Rebate entitlement is also balanced. The amount of Child Care Rebate you’re entitled to depends on the amount of Child Care Benefit you receive. Any adjustment to your Child Care Benefit will impact on your Child Care rebate. A top-up of Child Care Benefit payment you may result in a Child Care Rebate overpayment if you’ve already received some of this during the 2015-16 financial year. If this is the case, any top-up of Child Care benefit is used first to offset the Child Cate Rebate overpayment and any remainder is then paid to you. If you’ve been overpaid Child Care Benefit your Child Care Rebate entitlement may increase. Any top-up Child Care Rebate payments will be offset against your Child Care Benefit debt and you will have to pay back any outstanding Child Care Benefit you have been overpaid. You can find out more about how child care payments are balanced here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/balancing-your-child-care-payments (opens in new window)

If you have a family assistance debt or Schoolkids Bonus debt we will recover overpayments from future family assistance payments, including top-up payments, supplement payments or tax refunds. This may occur even if you have entered into a repayment arrangement with the department. You can read more about balancing family assistance payments here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window)

To be eligible for the Schoolkids Bonus, your annual adjusted taxable income must be $100,000 or less. When we balance your family payments for the 2015-16 financial year, we compare the amount of family assistance we paid you for the financial year (this is based on the family income estimate you gave us) against the amount you were entitled to receive (this is based on your actual family income). When we balance your Family Tax Benefit we will also confirm your entitlement to the Schoolkids Bonus for the financial year, using your actual family income. If your annual adjusted taxable income for the financial year was higher than $100,000 you may have received a payment of Schoolkids Bonus you weren’t entitled to, and you’ll have to repay this. We will recover the amount you were overpaid from future family assistance payments, including top-up payments, supplement payments or tax refunds. This may occur even if you have entered into a repayment arrangement with the department. You can find out more about the Schoolkids Bonus income test here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/schoolkids-bonus/eligibility-schoolkids-bonus (opens in new window) If you receive Family Tax Benefit and your income changes throughout the year, it’s important to update your income estimate so we can ensure you’re being paid the correct entitlement.

Any Family Tax Benefit top-up payments and supplements (excluding the Schoolkids Bonus) you may be entitled to, can be used by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to recover tax debts. We recommend contacting the ATO to discuss your situation in more detail with them: https://www.ato.gov.au/About-ATO/About-us/Contact-us/ (opens in new window)

If you haven’t claimed family and child care assistance payments during the 2015-16 financial year, you have until 30 June 2017 to lodge a lump sum claim for Family Tax Benefit, Child Care Benefit, or the Single Income Family Supplement. Your Child Care Rebate entitlement is automatically calculated when your Child Care Benefit lump sum claim is finalised. You also have until 30 June 2017 to confirm your and your partner’s income for FTB purposes for the 2015-16 financial year by either lodging tax returns with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or advising us that you or your partner don’t need to lodge a tax return. There’s more info about this here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/changes-to-the-time-period-for-lodging-lump-sum-claims-and-confirming-income (opens in new window)

AYou have until 30 June 2016 to lodge a lump sum claim for Family Tax Benefit, Child Care Benefit, or the Single Income Family Supplement (if you don’t receive FTB) for the 2014-15 financial year. Your Child Care Rebate entitlement is automatically calculated when your Child Care Benefit lump sum claim is finalised. For Family Tax Benefit purposes, you also have until 30 June 2016 to confirm your and your partner’s income for the 2014-15 financial year by either lodging tax returns with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or advising us that you or your partner don’t need to lodge a tax return, and confirm your income for the year. There’s more info about this here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/changes-to-the-time-period-for-lodging-lump-sum-claims-and-confirming-income (opens in new window)

If you need to lodge a tax return for the 2015-16 financial year you can view, download or request a copy of your Centrelink payment summary through your Centrelink online account through myGov or the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. There’s a step-by-step guide showing how to request a payment summary with your Centrelink online account through myGov here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/online-services/guides/request-a-document-centrelink-online (opens in new window) If you’re using myTax or a registered tax agent, then your Centrelink payment summary information is pre-filled for you from early to mid July. There’s more information about payment summaries here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/centrelink-payment-summary (opens in new window)

You can view, download or request a copy of your Centrelink payment summary through your Centrelink online account through myGov or the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. Payment Summaries are available through your online account for up to seven years. There’s a step-by-step guide showing how to request a payment summary with your Centrelink online account through myGov here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/online-services/guides/request-a-document-centrelink-online (opens in new window) There’s more information about payment summaries here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/centrelink-payment-summary (opens in new window)

If you received Child Care Benefit during the financial year and chose to receive your Child Care Rebate quarterly, your last quarterly Child Care Rebate payment will be made once your Child Care Benefit payments have been balanced. We start balancing your child care payments from the fourth Monday in July to ensure all attendance information for the year is included when we do this check. This year, this will start from Monday 25 July 2016 and will occur over a two week period due to the number of customer records that need to be checked. If you received Child Care Benefit during the financial year, your child care payments will only be balanced in this period if we also have your actual income details or you’ve advised you are not required to lodge a tax return. If you received Child Care Rebate only, your payments will be balanced automatically so you won’t need to do anything. Once we’ve balanced your payments we’ll write to you letting you know the outcome and explain how your payment amounts were worked out. If you receive your letters online, keep an eye out there. You can also check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. You can find more information about balancing your child care payments here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/child-care-benefit/balancing-your-child-care-payments (opens in new window)

If you receive Child Care Rebate payments quarterly, you’ll receive the payment from 27 July 2016 for the 4 April to 3 July 2016 period. If you also received Child Care Benefit, your Child Care Rebate, and any top ups you might be entitled to, can’t be made until we’ve confirmed your income for the 2015-16 financial year and balanced your payments. It is important you complete the necessary steps so we can balance your payments. Find out what you need to do using our Tax Time Checker tool: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/balancing (opens in new window) If you only received Child Care Rebate, you don’t need to do anything, we have all the information we need to balance your payment automatically. You can check if a payment has been issued by logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov or by using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. Find out more about balancing child care payments here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/child-care-benefit/balancing-your-child-care-payments (opens in new window)

If you lodge an annual lump sum claim for Child Care Benefit for the 2015-16 financial year from 1 July 2016 and you have until 30 June 2017 to lodge this claim. If you claim Child Care Benefit annually as a lump sum payment, you will also receive your Child Care Rebate as a lump sum. If eligible, both payments will be made directly to your nominated bank account when your lump sum claim for Child Care Benefit has been assessed. There’s more information on claiming Child Care Benefit here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/child-care-benefit/claiming (opens in new window)

You must submit your lump sum claim for Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate with us within 1 year of the end of the financial year for which you are claiming. There’s more information on claiming Child Care Benefit here: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/child-care-benefit/claiming (opens in new window)