If you lodge your own tax return, the deadline is Monday 2 November 2026. The usual date is 31 October, and this year that is a Saturday, so the ATO's own rule moves self-lodgers to the next business day. The return itself is the 2025–26 income year — 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 — not the year you are living through now.
This is general information, not tax advice. A registered tax agent is the person who can tell you what applies to your file.
Two deadlines, and they are not the same
Lodging it yourself. You have until Monday 2 November. MyTax is the usual path. If the prefill is missing a job, the income still has to go on the return; finalised income statements are a convenience, not the test of what you earned.
Using a registered tax agent. You need to engage them before 31 October. The ATO's agent page says to contact them before 31 October if it is your first time with that agent. On the agent side, authority to act has to be notified by 31 October 2026, and the lodgment program says you cannot notify that on the next business day. A Monday phone call is late for the program even though it is on time for a self-lodger.
Most remaining individuals and trusts who are not required earlier then fall due on 15 May 2027. That is not everyone. The individuals and trusts table pulls some people forward: a prior-year return still outstanding at 30 June 2026 is due 31 October 2026, and a latest return with a tax liability of $20,000 or more is due 31 March 2027. The date that matters is the one on the agent's client list.
A last-week checklist
The return is 2025–26. Several calculators on this site model 2026–27, because that is the year now in progress. Where the years differ, the checklist says so.
- Income. Salary, bank interest, dividends, any freelance or sole-trader income, and government payments. The return estimator defaults to 2025–26 and can switch to 2026–27 if you are planning ahead. The income tax calculator is the 2026–27 tool: the bottom bracket in that year is 15%, and the return you are lodging still uses 16% on income from $18,201 to $45,000. The gap between those two years is a flat $268 once taxable income reaches $45,000.
- Work from home. The fixed rate for 2025–26 is 70 cents an hour. A full-time pattern of 38 hours a week for 48 weeks is 1,824 hours, which is a $1,277 deduction — the same example as the work-from-home calculator. You need a record of the hours. The rate covers energy, internet, phone, stationery and consumables; it does not cover a desk or a chair.
- Car. For 2025–26 the cents-per-kilometre rate is 88 cents, capped at 5,000 business kilometres, so the maximum claim is $4,400. The car logbook calculator itself runs the 2026–27 rate of 91 cents, because that is the year you are driving through now, and the page sets the 88-cent figure beside it. Use 88 cents for this return.
- HECS-HELP. You do not type a repayment onto the return. If you have a study loan and your repayment income is over the threshold, the ATO works the compulsory repayment out and puts it on the notice of assessment. For 2025–26 the minimum repayment income is $67,000: nothing up to that, then 15 cents per dollar over $67,000 until $125,000. The ATO's own illustration is a repayment income of $80,000, which is 15% of $13,000, or $1,950. The HECS calculator models 2026–27, where the threshold is $69,528. Useful for the year ahead. Not the bill on this return.
- Medicare levy surcharge. The surcharge calculator models 2026–27, where the single threshold is $105,000. The return you are lodging is the year before. Use it to see the shape of the tiers, and check the ATO's 2025–26 thresholds before you treat that dollar figure as this year's. Hospital cover has to have been held for the year you are claiming.
- The rest of the prefill. Private health statement, spouse details if they affect the Medicare levy, union or professional fees, and donations with a receipt. The standard $1,000 work deduction is a 2026–27 rule. It is not on this return.
If it is late
Lodge as soon as you can. A refund is not issued until you lodge, and a bill does not get smaller by waiting.
The failure-to-lodge penalty for an individual is one penalty unit for each 28 days, or part of 28 days, that the return is overdue, up to five units. From 1 July 2026 a penalty unit is $364 (it was $330 before that). A late 2025–26 return falls after 1 July 2026, so the $364 unit is the one that applies.
| How late | Units | Base penalty |
|---|---|---|
| 1–28 days | 1 | $364 |
| 29–56 days | 2 | $728 |
| 57–84 days | 3 | $1,092 |
| 85–112 days | 4 | $1,456 |
| 113 days or more | 5 | $1,820 |
The ATO's wording is that you may receive the penalty. Circumstances are considered, and a penalty can be remitted. It is not a charge that appears by itself the morning after the deadline. You cannot claim a deduction for it. Medium and large withholders are multiples of the same base; almost every wage earner lodging a personal return is on the base.
▶ Failure-to-lodge, individual base penalty
If you lodge your own return between 1 July and 31 October and it produces a bill, the ATO says payment is due on 21 November. If the assessment issues after 31 October, payment is due 21 days after the assessment. Lodging on the rolled date of 2 November can put the assessment after 31 October, so the date on the notice is the one to read. Interest on an amount still unpaid after the due date is the general interest charge: 11.51% a year for October–December 2026, compounded daily. GIC incurred from 1 July 2025 is not deductible.
If you cannot pay, lodge first and then talk to the ATO about a payment plan. The penalty and the interest are both worse if the return simply never arrives. A default assessment, which the ATO can raise without your figures, can carry a further penalty of 75% of the tax-related liability.
The next money date in the diary is the Reserve Bank's cash-rate announcement at 2.30pm on Tuesday 3 November. That guide does not predict the decision. If you run a business, the July–September BAS is due two days before this return, on 28 October.