{"id":266835,"date":"2026-06-07T16:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T20:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/07\/this-tax-time-heres-what-to-watch-out-for-and-when-its-better-to-lodge-early-or-later\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T16:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T20:45:12","slug":"this-tax-time-heres-what-to-watch-out-for-and-when-its-better-to-lodge-early-or-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/07\/this-tax-time-heres-what-to-watch-out-for-and-when-its-better-to-lodge-early-or-later\/","title":{"rendered":"This tax time, here\u2019s what to watch out for \u2013 and when it\u2019s better to lodge early or later"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/this-tax-time-heres-what-to-watch-out-for-and-when-its-better-to-lodge-early-or-later-282269\">This tax time, here\u2019s what to watch out for \u2013 and when it\u2019s better to lodge early or later<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/this-tax-time-heres-what-to-watch-out-for-and-when-its-better-to-lodge-early-or-later-282269\">https:\/\/theconversation.com\/this-tax-time-heres-what-to-watch-out-for-and-when-its-better-to-lodge-early-or-later-282269<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-06-07 16:09:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"theconversation.com\">theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tax time is coming \u2013 and with it, the unfortunate reality of needing to do something to get ready. <\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t put your head in the sand and ignore it. That\u2019s how you can end up missing the October 31 deadline and potentially end up with fines and penalties.<\/p>\n<p>And don\u2019t risk taking tax advice from unofficial sources. <\/p>\n<p>This year, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has warned against relying on online tips or \u201ctax hacks\u201d from \u201cfinfluencers\u201d: financial influencers on social media. It\u2019s also warned artificial intelligence platforms can draw from outdated, inaccurate or foreign sources \u2013 so using them for your tax can be risky.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re seeking advice, always ensure you are dealing with a registered tax agent.  <\/p>\n<p>Luckily, the ATO has been improving its online tax tools, so lodging your tax yourself is not as daunting as it once was. <\/p>\n<h2>A growing trend to DIY taxes<\/h2>\n<p>More than 6.1 million Australians (around 43%) did their own tax online with MyTax in 2025. <\/p>\n<p>More than 8.1 million (around 57%) still choose to use a tax agent.<\/p>\n<p>But doing your own tax has been a steadily growing trend for more than a decade, as more people realise the ease of using MyTax.<\/p>\n<h2>The tax office knows a lot<\/h2>\n<p>As a taxpayer, you have the obligation to tell the ATO what you have earned \u2013 even if you think you don\u2019t have to pay any tax.<\/p>\n<p>While the ATO know a lot more about you than you might realise, they are not mind readers.<\/p>\n<p>The tax office collects more than 600 million transactions annually from various third parties. Sometimes they share the information with you \u2013 such as when they pre-fill sections of your MyTax form \u2013 but sometimes they don\u2019t. <\/p>\n<p>While articles like this about tax time often focus on claiming deductions, being transparent about your income is non-negotiable.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever you claim on your tax return, the onus is on you to get it right.<\/p>\n<p>If you have deposits in your bank account, can you explain where those came from? If not, the ATO may deem&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/this-tax-time-heres-what-to-watch-out-for-and-when-its-better-to-lodge-early-or-later-282269\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This tax time, here\u2019s what to watch out for \u2013 and when it\u2019s better to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/739958\/original\/file-20260604-71-28u2wg.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C497%2C4805%2C2402&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-266835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266837,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266835\/revisions\/266837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}