My paper tax return was received by the ATO on 9 November. The online portal still shows Information Pending as the outcome as of 19 January. This hasn't changed in 4 weeks. Your service standard states that paper return should take 50 days to finalise. I'm not sure what information is outstanding as my return was lodged via my accountant.
Hey @McTavish,
That's correct the services standard for processing of a paper tax return is 50 days. The 50 days is from when we receive it in our system. As we were shut down over Christmas the 50-day service standard is yet to pass.
The status of information pending means that we're still gathering all the information we need to finalise your tax return.
You may also like to read more about why there may be delays on our website.
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Hey @McTavish,
That's correct the services standard for processing of a paper tax return is 50 days. The 50 days is from when we receive it in our system. As we were shut down over Christmas the 50-day service standard is yet to pass.
The status of information pending means that we're still gathering all the information we need to finalise your tax return.
You may also like to read more about why there may be delays on our website.
Hi, I gather that means 6 days lost over the Christmas & New Year period to shutdown plus Australia Day which makes 7 days takes the date out to around the end of January?
Hi @McTavish
That's right it depends what info is pending as well which is a common cause of delays. We may be waiting for third-party data. Hope you get an outcome soon.
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