Key takeaways
- Online returns: most process within 12 business days. The ATO also describes this as "generally within 2 weeks".
- Paper returns: up to 50 business days, and up to 7 weeks before the return even appears in ATO systems.
- Manual review: up to 30 calendar days, and the ATO says phoning will not speed it up.
- You can lodge from 1 July, but employers have until 14 July to finalise their payroll data and most pre-fill arrives by late July.
- Lodging your own return is due by 31 October. Engage a registered tax agent before that date if you want their extended schedule.
- Refunds are paid by electronic funds transfer, so wrong bank details stall the payment even after the return is assessed.
How long it actually takes
The ATO publishes one set of processing timeframes and applies them to everyone. There is no queue you can jump and no lodgement day that gets you paid first. What follows is the ATO's own published timing.
| How you lodged | ATO processing time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Online with myTax | 12 business days | The ATO also states most refunds issue within 2 weeks |
| Online, pulled for manual processing | Up to 30 calendar days | Cannot be accelerated by phoning the ATO |
| Paper return by mail | Up to 50 business days | About 10 weeks; most refunds issue inside that window |
| Paper return, time to appear in ATO systems | Up to 7 weeks | Before this, tracking will show nothing |
| Through a registered tax agent | Same as online | Agents lodge electronically; the ATO timeframe is unchanged |
Business days matter here. Twelve business days across a stretch with two public holidays is closer to three calendar weeks than two. The clock starts when the ATO receives the lodgement, not when you press submit on a slow connection.
Online versus paper lodgement
The gap is large enough that it settles the question for almost everyone. myTax through myGov is processed in roughly a quarter of the time a mailed paper return takes, and it arrives pre-filled with your income statement, bank interest, health fund details and government payments already in place. A paper return has to be received, scanned and keyed before anything happens.
Paper still makes sense in a few situations: you are lodging a prior year form that myTax does not support, you are leaving Australia permanently and lodging early, or you genuinely cannot access online services. Outside those cases, the 50 business day timeframe is a self-inflicted wait.
A refund is the gap between tax withheld and tax owed. On $60,000 of income for 2026-27 the tax owed is $9,620, and on $85,000 it is $17,720. Compare that with the tax withheld figure on your income statement, or put both numbers into the tax refund calculator, and you will know roughly what is coming before the ATO tells you.
When lodgement opens, and when it closes
The income year runs from 1 July to 30 June. Lodgement opens on 1 July for the year that just ended, and if you lodge your own return it is due by 31 October. Where 31 October falls on a weekend, the due date moves to the next business day.
Two dates people miss. First, if you want a registered tax agent's extended lodgement schedule, you have to be on their client list before 31 October. Signing up in November does not buy you the extension. Second, if you lodge your own return between 1 July and 31 October and it produces a bill rather than a refund, payment is due by 21 November.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1 July | Lodgement opens for the year that ended 30 June |
| 14 July | Deadline for most employers to finalise Single Touch Payroll data, and to issue a payment summary if they do not report through STP |
| Late July | Most pre-fill information from banks, health funds and government agencies has reached the ATO |
| 31 July | If your income statement still says Not tax ready, speak to your employer |
| 31 October | Due date to lodge your own return, or to be engaged with a registered tax agent |
| 21 November | Payment due if your self-lodged return produced a tax bill |
Why waiting until late July is the better play
Your employer reports pay to the ATO through Single Touch Payroll during the year, but the figures are not final until the employer marks the income statement Tax ready. Most employers have until 14 July to do that. Until it flips, the gross and the tax withheld on your income statement can still move.
The ATO is blunt about the consequences. In its 2025 tax time media release it reported that 142,000 people who lodged in the first two weeks of July had to lodge amendments, or had their returns investigated and amended by the ATO, to fix inaccuracies. Assistant Commissioner Rob Thomson's line was that "the best time to lodge is from late July once everything is ready".
An amendment costs far more time than the fortnight you saved by jumping early, because the amended return re-enters processing from the start. Wait for two signals: your income statement shows Tax ready, and the pre-fill in myTax has populated your bank interest, health fund and government payment details. The ATO sends a myGov inbox notification when all your income statements are Tax ready. If you need the myGov path to check, it is in our guide on getting your income statement from myGov.
What delays a refund
The ATO publishes the list of things that move a return out of the automated stream:
- Lodging again after you have already lodged, which is the most common self-inflicted delay
- Amending before the original return or a previous amendment has finished processing
- Lodging several years of returns at once
- Bank account details on the return that are no longer current
- The ATO cross-checking your figures with an employer, bank, health fund or another government agency such as Services Australia, including Centrelink or Child Support
- An existing tax debt, or a debt that was previously put on hold and has been re-raised
- Being under an insolvency administration such as bankruptcy or a debt arrangement
Where you owe money to another government agency, the ATO is required to pay part or all of the refund to that agency. You are notified when that happens, but the money does not arrive in your account.
One trap worth knowing: a cancelled transaction showing on your income tax account does not mean your return has stopped. The lodgement can display as cancelled for 24 to 48 hours while the ATO reviews it. Do not lodge again during that window. Allow up to two weeks for an electronically lodged return to be finalised.
How to track it in myGov
The ATO's self-service path takes about thirty seconds:
- Sign in to myGov
- Select ATO from your linked services
- From the home page select Manage tax returns
- Select the income year you are checking
In the ATO app, log in and select your tax return for the relevant income year. By phone, the self-help service is on 13 28 65: choose option 1, then option 1 again, with your tax file number ready.
The status you see maps to a real stage of processing:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| In progress – Processing | Received and started, or nearly finalised with a notice of assessment about to issue |
| In progress – Balancing account | The ATO is squaring the result against your accounts and other government agencies |
| In progress – Information pending | The ATO is collecting information to finish the assessment |
| In progress – Under review | A manual check is running before the return is finalised |
| Issued – Dollar amount or Nil | Done. The notice of assessment has issued and shows your refund or amount owing |
Selecting the down arrow on a return in progress often reveals an estimated assessment issue date, which is more useful than any general timeframe.
What to do if the refund is late
Wait out the published timeframe first
Twelve business days online, 30 calendar days if the status says Under review, 50 business days on paper. Contacting the ATO inside those windows achieves nothing, and the ATO states plainly that manual processing cannot be sped up by phoning.
Check the status, not your bank
If the status is Issued with a dollar amount but nothing has arrived, the problem is the payment, not the assessment. Confirm the bank account details on the lodged return. The ATO has a missing refunds process for exactly this situation.
Check your myGov inbox and your phone
The ATO sends an email or SMS when a return or refund is delayed and why. Those messages will never ask you to reply with personal information such as your tax file number, so treat any message that does as a scam.
Ask about priority processing only if it applies
Taxpayers in serious hardship can request priority processing, but the ATO requires evidence of financial hardship. It is not a general fast lane.
If the amount is wrong rather than late
A smaller refund than you expected is usually not an ATO error. The common causes, from claiming the tax-free threshold on two jobs to a HELP debt crossing its repayment threshold, are covered in why is my tax refund so low. If too much is coming out of each pay in the first place, see why your PAYG tax is so high, and check the fortnightly figure with the PAYG withholding calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to get a tax return?
How long does it take to get a tax refund?
How long for a tax refund to reach my bank account?
How long does a paper tax refund take?
When can you do your tax return?
When should you do your tax return?
Why is my tax refund taking so long?
Can the ATO speed up my refund?
Sources
- ATO: How to track the progress of your tax return (12 business days online, up to 30 calendar days manual, up to 50 business days on paper, 7 weeks to appear in systems, myGov and phone tracking steps)
- ATO: Status of your tax return (status definitions, delay reasons, cancelled transactions, priority processing, email and SMS)
- ATO: Preparing your tax return (1 July to 30 June income year, 31 October due date, 21 November payment date)
- ATO: Lodge a paper tax return (most paper refunds issue within 50 business days)
- ATO: Access your income statement (employers have until 14 July to finalise, Tax ready status, speak to your employer after 31 July)
- ATO: Pre-filling your online tax return (most pre-fill information reaches the ATO by late July)
- ATO media release, 26 June 2025: ATO warns taxpayers: Don't lodge yet! (142,000 early-July lodgers amended, "best time to lodge is from late July")
Related resources
Tax Refund Calculator
What is coming back, from withheld against owed
Open →Why Is My Tax Refund So Low?
Six real causes, with the check and the fix
Open →Find Your Income Statement
The myGov path and what Tax ready means
Open →
Narelle Hartigan is a CPA-qualified tax accountant with over a decade of experience in Australian personal taxation and payroll. She founded PAYG Calculator Australia to make tax withholding easy for every Australian worker to understand.