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We have information in different languages about Balancing Family Tax Benefit
For Centrelink payments and services, you can call our multilingual phone service.
The financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. We start to balance FTB payments after the financial year ends and you get your last payment.
You usually need to confirm your income before we can balance your payments. If you have a partner, or had one during the year, they’ll need to do this too.
If you’re unsure what you need to do to balance your payments you can check using our What families need to do at tax time tool.
If you lodge a tax return
Once you or your partner lodge your tax returns, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will tell us your incomes. We'll use this information to balance your FTB.
Some Centrelink payments won’t be pre filled in your tax return, read more about payments that don't show on it.
If you don’t need to lodge a tax return
You need to tell us if you and your partner don’t need to lodge a tax return.
In some cases, we can’t balance your FTB unless you tell us how much income you or your partner got.
Once we have this information we'll balance your FTB.
If you have a Centrelink online account that’s linked to myGov, you can sign in and tell us if you and your partner don’t need to lodge a tax return and confirm your income the financial year.
If you don’t have a myGov account or a Centrelink online account you’ll need to create them:
- Centrelink online account through myGov
- Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.
You must include any taxable amounts you got in your taxable income so we can balance your payments correctly.
Some government payments won’t prefill when telling us you don’t need to lodge a tax return online. They also may not appear on your Centrelink payment summary.
If you were affected by a declared natural disaster and got a government payment, you may need to include this as income. You must also include all taxable payments you got from other government departments, including some payments from Veterans’ Affairs.
Read more about payments that don’t show on your Centrelink payment summary.
If you separated from a partner during the financial year
If you separated from a partner during the financial year, we’ll balance your FTB after you confirm your income. We’ll use the income estimate provided for your ex-partner if they haven’t lodged a tax return yet.
We balance Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and FTB separately. If you also got CCS, read more about how we balance CCS if you separated from a partner.
If you were single and got an income support payment
If you were single and got an income support payment for the financial year, you might not have to do anything for your FTB to balance. You may still need to lodge a tax return for another reason, such as if you have a child support assessment.
Read more about FTB balancing dates if you were single and got an income support payment.
If you got Child Care Subsidy
It’s important to keep in mind that we balance FTB and balance CCS separately.
If you got CCS you’ll need to confirm your income, even if you don’t need to for FTB. Read more about balancing CCS.