Suitable for: Everyone

Tax Difficulty: Easy

Time to read: 1-2 minutes

Tax Focus: Income Tax Returns

When completing a tax return, it is reasonable for you to wonder why we require you to submit your bank account information. In this Help Centre article, we’ll answer a few frequently asked questions about this section and why it’s important.

Including your bank details in your income tax return

Why am I being asked for my bank account details?

Your bank details are necessary in order to process an electronic tax return lodgement with the ATO. This makes the process of the ATO issuing you with any refund much faster.

What happens if I don’t supply these details?

If you leave this section blank, the ATO will issue you with a physical cheque if you end up in a refundable position. 

What happens if I give you the wrong details?

Any refund will be issued to the bank account you nominate here. Therefore, if you input an incorrect bank account, your refund will go to this bank account. Take care to make sure the bank account you nominate here belongs to you, and not someone else. 

If you input an invalid bank account (maybe you input some digits incorrectly), any refund will be held by the ATO and not processed until you correct this information on myGov.

Do I need to nominate the same one as last year?

No, you can input any valid bank account you like. It can vary each year. 

What does this mean for you?

Not much, really. Your bank account details are passed on to the ATO for the purposes of processing any potential refund to you, based on the outcome of your tax return. They are not used by Airtax to process any payments, nor passed to any other third party.

How do you complete this section on Airtax?

Simply nominate a valid Australian bank account, and any refundable amount will be paid directly into it post-lodgement. If you do not have an Australian bank account, you can leave this section blank.

NOTE: Do not include any spaces or hyphens in the BSB and Account Number fields.

Where you can get more help:

• Feel free to search for other topics in the Help Centre
• If interested, consider using our Business Assist service to discuss with a qualified Tax Specialist about your BAS (recommended for first time users)

• If you want to speak to someone about your current Airtax income tax return, book in a Tax Assist call or Tax Professional call with a tax specialist.

This document merely provides a broad outline of the subject and is necessarily general in nature.  If you require specific advice, which is tailored to your specific circumstances, please do not hesitate to contact us (fees would apply).