Do I need to back pay income tax on receipt of WUV dutch pension when you were not aware
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If a pension was received in an earlier year, is assessable income and was not reported in that tax return, then yes you would need to amend the tax returns (depending how far back it goes) to include the income. There would likely then be back taxes and interest to pay. Make sure you are 100% on the tax treatment though as I understand some of the WUV pension is for reimbursements of medical and care costs and those types of payments may have a different Australian tax treatment from the monthly pension. Plus, I believe some other war compensation payments are not assessable as the result of amendments made in 2003
You could always ask for a private ruling if there was any uncertainty about the treatment - but that might open up previous years to scrutiny!
In case the position about its tax status is uncertain - here is a link that might help a tax advisor start looking in the right direction to come up with an answer: https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/document?src=hs&pit=99991231235958&arc=true&start=1&pageSize=10&total=15&num=6&docid=NEM%2FEM200321%2FNAT%2FATO%2F00003&dc=false&stype=find&tm=and-basic-Holocaust
Hi @StellaE,
Yes, you need to pay tax on your Dutch pension from the year you started receiving it, even if you didn’t know you had to.
If you’re an Australian tax resident, you must declare all foreign pensions in your tax return. This includes pensions from the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) in the Netherlands. Convert the pension to Australian dollars and include it as income.
You can claim a deduction for the undeducted purchase price (UPP) of your Dutch pension. If you have the details to calculate the deductible amount, you can claim it. If not, you can claim 25% of your gross pension as a deduction.
You’ll need to amend your past tax returns for the years you didn’t declare this income. You can do this through myGov or by contacting us. We’ll recalculate your tax, including the pension income and any UPP deduction.
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