For individuals
Overdue individual tax returns
One year behind or ten, the process is the same. Most of your income has already been reported to the ATO through Single Touch Payroll and prefill, so the work is rebuilding the deductions, filing the years that were never required as non-lodgment advice, and getting the whole record clean in one engagement.
- Every outstanding year lodged in one go
- Missing income statements rebuilt from ATO prefill
- Penalty and interest remission requested where appropriate
Free assessment
Complete the short confidential form. A registered tax professional will respond within one business day.
100% confidential · No obligation · Registered Tax Agent
Who this is for
- PAYG employees one, three or ten years behind on personal returns
- People with missing income statements or old payment summaries
- Anyone who has changed jobs, moved states or lived overseas mid-period
- Landlords with rental income across several unlodged years
- People receiving Centrelink or other government payments
- Anyone who suspects refunds are sitting unclaimed in old years
Personal returns are the most common backlog we see, and the least dramatic to fix. The ATO already holds your salary and wage data for each year; what it does not hold is your deductions, your offsets or your reason for not lodging. Lodging supplies all three.
What lodging late actually costs
Penalties may increase every 28 days, up to the applicable cap for each overdue document. For an individual, one penalty unit is $364 and the standard maximum is five units, or $1,820 per overdue document.
For failures occurring on or after 1 July 2026, one Commonwealth penalty unit is $364. Earlier failures may be calculated using the penalty-unit value applicable at that time.
Failure to lodge penalties increase according to the applicable penalty-unit rules and caps. The general interest charge is separate and may accrue on unpaid tax debt. The general interest charge is currently 11.43% p.a. for the July - September 2026 quarter.
Sources: ATO Failure to lodge on time penalty · ATO penalty units · ATO general interest charge rates
What we deal with
Missing income statements and payment summaries
Single Touch Payroll means most salary and wage income already sits in ATO systems. We pull the prefill for every outstanding year and reconcile it against your bank records, so a lost payment summary is not a reason to stay unlodged.
Historical refunds
Over-withheld PAYG, part-year employment, second jobs taxed at a higher rate and unclaimed deductions all push older years towards a refund. Those amounts are not lost because the return is late - they are simply unclaimed until the year is lodged.
Rental property income
Rental income, interest, agent fees, repairs, insurance, rates, depreciation and capital works are reconstructed year by year from agent statements and loan records, so the net rental position is right for each income year rather than estimated.
Government payments
JobSeeker, parenting payments, paid parental leave and other taxable Services Australia payments are reportable and appear in prefill. Unlodged returns can also hold up family assistance reconciliation, which is a common reason people discover the backlog.
Old records, or none at all
Missing receipts are normal on multi-year catch-ups. We reconstruct from bank and card statements, employer and super records, agent summaries and ATO prefill, and we claim on a reasonable, documented basis rather than guessing. Where a deduction cannot be supported, we leave it out - a clean lodgement is worth more than an aggressive one.
Non-lodgment advice
Not every outstanding year needs a return. Years below the threshold, or where you had no assessable income at all, are closed off with a non-lodgment advice. It costs less, clears the obligation from your ATO record and stops the reminder letters for that year.
The step-by-step process
Free assessment
Tell us roughly how many years you are behind and what your income looked like. We come back with what is outstanding, the likely refund or debt position and a fixed fee - within one business day.
You nominate us as your tax agent
A short step in ATO Online Services. It lets us see every outstanding year, the prefill data, any default assessments raised in your absence and the current balance of your account.
We rebuild each year
Prefill plus your own records: bank statements, rental agent summaries, private health statements, super records and any receipts you still have. Where original records are gone, we reconstruct on a reasonable, documented basis.
We lodge every outstanding year
Lodged oldest to newest, with non-lodgment advice filed for any year where a return was never required. Real figures replace any default assessment the ATO has raised.
Penalties, refunds and any balance
We request remission of failure to lodge penalties and interest where the circumstances support it, then either follow your refunds through to payment or set up an initial ATO payment arrangement on whatever remains.
What we need from you
- Photo ID and your tax file number
- The income years you think are outstanding
- Bank statements for the relevant years, if you have them
- Rental agent annual statements and loan interest summaries
- Private health insurance statements
- Any ATO letters, notices or default assessments you have received
- Details of any spouse and dependants for offsets and Medicare
- Records of work-related expenses, even partial ones
Do not wait until you have everything. Most people start with partial records and we fill the rest from ATO data once the agent nomination is in place.
Pricing and timeframe
$699 +GSTper income year
Fixed fee, quoted in writing before any work starts, with multi-year discounts when several years are caught up together. Simple PAYG-only years are quoted at the lower end; rental properties, investments and capital gains add to the work involved.
Fees are generally payable upfront. Approved payment arrangements may be available for qualifying multi-year engagements. Fee-from-refund may be available for eligible individual refund cases.
Once we have all required records, most standard catch-ups can be prepared and lodged within approximately five business days.
Overdue personal tax return questions
How many years of overdue individual tax returns can I lodge at once?
There is no limit on how many years can be brought up to date. We regularly lodge five, ten or more income years in a single engagement, working oldest to newest so each year's carried-forward amounts and any losses flow through correctly.
I've lost my payment summaries and income statements. Can you still lodge?
Yes. Since Single Touch Payroll, most employers report your salary, wages and PAYG withholding straight to the ATO, and that data sits in the ATO prefill for each year. Once you nominate us as your tax agent we can pull the prefill for every outstanding year, then fill the gaps from bank statements, super fund records and any documents you still hold.
Will I get a refund or end up owing money?
It depends on the year. PAYG withholding is deliberately conservative, so employees with a single job and unclaimed deductions frequently end up in refund territory, particularly in part-year working periods. Years with untaxed income - rental profit, investment income, contract work, capital gains or certain government payments - are more likely to produce a debt. We tell you the expected position for each year before anything is lodged.
What if I did not need to lodge in some of those years?
Then we lodge a non-lodgment advice for that year instead of a return. It formally tells the ATO no return is required, which closes the outstanding lodgement off your record without a return being prepared.
Will I be penalised for lodging late?
Penalties may increase every 28 days, up to the applicable cap for each overdue document. For failures occurring on or after 1 July 2026, one Commonwealth penalty unit is $364. Earlier failures may be calculated using the penalty-unit value applicable at that time. Failure to lodge penalties are remittable, and the ATO is generally more receptive once every outstanding year has been voluntarily brought up to date. We request remission as part of the engagement, but the decision always rests with the ATO.
How much does it cost and can the fee come out of my refund?
from $699 +GST per income year, quoted as a fixed fee before we start, with discounts when several years are caught up together. Fees are generally payable upfront. Approved payment arrangements may be available for qualifying multi-year engagements. Fee-from-refund may be available for eligible individual refund cases.
How long does it take?
Once we have all required records, most standard catch-ups can be prepared and lodged within approximately five business days. ATO processing time for each lodged return sits on top of that and is outside our control - refunds on multiple back years are often manually reviewed before they are released.
Let's get every year lodged.
Complete the short confidential form. A registered tax professional will respond within one business day.
⚡ Complete the short confidential form. A registered tax professional will respond within one business day.