The ATO have released the following information concerning processing times for tax returns this year: 

As at 26 July 2010, the ATO had issued more than 942,000 notices of assessment, including approximately 830,000 refunds.

At the end of every financial year, the ATO goes though the process of updating its software, mainly to take account of any changes to the tax laws for the previous year. The new software has to be loaded, tested and verified.

During this time (which extends into the first weeks of the new financial year) only a very small number of returns are processed.

As was the case last year, this year we aim to process 94% of individuals’ electronic returns within 14 days. Now that full processing is well underway, it is expected that most electronically lodged (through e-tax or tax agents) returns will meet the 14 day time-frame. However, as usual, some returns will take longer than others because, for example, a claim in the return needs to be checked or more information is needed. Other examples of where it may take us longer to process a return are where we need to check with Centrelink and the Child Support Agency.

Most paper returns should be processed within 42 days (we aim to process 80% of paper returns in 42 days). Again, some can take longer than others, for the same sorts of reasons.

This year the ATO has upgraded its technology to help detect over-stated or fraudulent claims for refunds. This has added 2 days to the processing time for all returns, but we still aim to meet our 14 and 42 day targets.

Given the size of the technology and the scale of the changes, we always keep a close watch on how our systems are operating.

One area we were watching carefully was the processing of returns for taxpayers who have Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) and Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS) obligations, where minor delays had been experienced. However, processing of these returns commenced on 23 July 2010 and it is expected that EFT payments of refunds will have commenced by the end of this week.

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