myTax
The ATO's free online tool for individuals to prepare and lodge their own tax return through myGov.
myTax is the ATO's free online tax return preparation and lodgement tool, accessible through your myGov account linked to the ATO. It guides you step-by-step through your tax return with pre-filled information from employers, banks, super funds, health insurers, and government agencies. Most individuals can complete their return in under 30 minutes using myTax.
The tool is available from 1 July each year for the financial year just ended. It includes built-in help, calculators, and validation checks to reduce errors. myTax also handles common situations like multiple employers, investment income, rental properties, and work-related deductions. For more complex affairs (e.g., business income, foreign income, or CGT events), you may find a registered tax agent more suitable.
Once lodged through myTax, you typically receive your Notice of Assessment within 2 weeks, and refunds are usually paid within 10–14 business days into your nominated bank account. The ATO recommends waiting until late July or August before lodging, as this allows more time for pre-fill data from third parties to become available.
How it works
myTax is the ATO's own free tool for preparing and lodging an individual tax return, accessed through your myGov account once it's linked to the ATO. It walks you through your return using data the ATO has already gathered from your employer, bank, super fund, and health insurer, so for straightforward tax affairs most of the heavy lifting is done before you even start typing. It becomes available from 1 July each year, covering the financial year that just ended.
In practice, most individuals use myTax by logging into myGov, checking the pre-filled figures against their own payslips and statements, adding anything missing such as cash income or extra deductions, and submitting. The tool includes built-in prompts and validation checks designed to catch obvious errors before lodgement, and it can handle common situations like multiple employers or a single rental property without needing specialist help.
A common mistake is lodging on 1 July itself, before third-party data has fully loaded — bank interest, private health insurance details, and some employer information can take a few weeks to appear, so lodging too early risks an incomplete return that later needs amending. myTax also isn't built for every situation: business income, foreign income, or a complex capital gains event usually points toward using a registered tax agent instead, since myTax's guided flow assumes a fairly standard set of income types.
Example: the myTax lodgement timeline
Suppose you log into myTax on 5 July, once most of your pre-fill data has loaded, and submit your return that day. Based on the ATO's typical processing pattern, your Notice of Assessment usually arrives within about two weeks — so around 19 July — confirming whether you owe tax or are due a refund.
If the assessment shows a refund, it's typically paid within 10 to 14 business days of the Notice of Assessment being issued. Counting from a Notice of Assessment on 19 July, that puts the refund landing in your account somewhere around the end of July to the first few days of August.
Related Terms
ATO (Australian Taxation Office)
The government agency responsible for administering Australia's tax and superannuation systems.
Tax Return
An annual form lodged with the ATO reporting your income, deductions, and tax payable or refundable for the financial year.
Notice of Assessment (NOA)
An official ATO document confirming the outcome of your tax return, showing tax payable or refundable.
Financial Year
Australia's financial year runs 1 July to 30 June. FY 2025-26 = 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Tax returns lodge after year-end via ATO myTax or tax agent.