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When your 2025–26 tax return is due

For sole traders lodging an individual return for 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Start with how you'll lodge.

Lodging yourself

Lodge by Monday

The usual 31 October deadline falls on a Saturday. Applying the ATO's weekend rule gives you until the next business day.

This date is calculated from the ATO's rule and the 2026 calendar. See how the rule applies.

Details for lodging yourself

Using a tax agent

New or changing agents? Be on their list by Saturday

Ask the agent to confirm they've added you. Booking an appointment isn't enough. Any overdue returns from earlier years must also be lodged by this date, not the next business day.

Your return's due date depends on your circumstances. Confirm it with your agent.

Steps for using an agent

Checked against ATO guidance on 29 September 2026. View sources.

Lodging your own return

If you carried on a business in 2025–26, you have to lodge, even if your income was under the tax-free threshold. As a sole trader you lodge one individual return with a business section, not a separate business return.

A paper return has to reach the ATO by the deadline, not just be posted. If you can't make it, contact the ATO before the due date.

Why the date is 2 November this year

The ATO's rule is to lodge by 31 October each year, or the next business day if that date falls on a weekend.

In 2026, 31 October is a Saturday and 1 November a Sunday, and 2 November isn't an ATO-listed public holiday. So Monday 2 November is the next business day.

No ATO page we found prints 2 November 2026 itself: this is the ATO's rule applied to this year's calendar.

Source: ATO, Preparing your tax return.

Using a tax agent

Most registered tax agents have a lodgment program that lets them lodge after 31 October. Your date depends on your circumstances and when you engage them.

  1. Get added to the agent's client list

    If you're using an agent for the first time or changing agents, contact them well before Saturday 31 October. Ask them to confirm they've added you to their ATO client list by then. This cutoff does not move to Monday.

    The agent has to tell the ATO they act for you. A new client's authority only takes effect when the ATO receives it; emailing an agent or booking an appointment isn't that step.

    Added after 31 October? If you previously lodged your own returns, you aren't covered by the agent's program and may need to lodge by an earlier date.

    Only registered tax agents can charge to prepare and lodge your return. Check their name, business name or registration number on the Tax Practitioners Board register.

  2. Check which circumstances apply to you

    The ATO's dates for individuals are a guide. Read each date with its conditions.

    31 Oct 2026
    Even with an agent, if any earlier year's return was still outstanding at 30 June 2026. Lodge every overdue return by Saturday 31 October, not the Monday, and the agent's normal date applies instead.
    31 Mar 2027
    If your latest lodged return resulted in a tax liability of $20,000 or more. That's the last return you lodged, not what you'll owe for 2025–26.
    15 May 2027
    Individuals not required to lodge earlier, including new registrations.

    These dates apply only if the agent lodges electronically. The ATO can ask for a return earlier, for example where there's a history of late lodgment or late payment.

  3. Confirm your actual due date

    Ask your agent which date applies to you and when they need your records. Being on their list doesn't give everyone the same deadline.

Sources: ATO client-list and overdue-return cutoff · Agent lodgment dates.

What to prepare

Gather the records that apply to you. Open an item for the rules and detail.

Income and expenses

All of your business income

Cash, card, bank transfers and payments through a platform or app. The ATO says pre-fill may be incomplete, so don't rely on it alone.

Records for every expense you claim

It has to be for the business, you claim only the business share of anything also used privately, and you need records to prove it. Not registered for GST, and not required to be? You claim the GST-inclusive amount.

Work and business costs

Your hours worked from home

The fixed rate for 2025–26 is 70 cents per work hour. You need a record of all your hours worked from home for the whole year, and at least one bill for each running cost you have that it covers. It covers electricity, gas, internet, phone and stationery, so those aren't claimed on top.

Your business kilometres

88 cents per kilometre for 2025–26, for up to 5,000 business kilometres per car. It's only for a car as the ATO defines one (not a motorcycle, or a vehicle designed to carry a tonne or more or 9 or more passengers) that you own, lease or have under hire purchase. The rate covers all your car expenses, including registration, insurance, fuel, servicing and depreciation, so none are claimed on top.

What you bought for the business

A small business using the simplified depreciation rules can generally immediately deduct the business share of an eligible asset costing less than $20,000, first used or installed ready for use between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026. The limit is on the asset's total cost, not the business share.

Tax payments and super

PAYG instalments, if you paid any

They aren't a deduction. The ATO credits them against your tax and refunds any excess.

Your super fund's acknowledgment, if you're claiming super

The contribution had to reach your fund before 1 July 2026. Give the fund a notice of intent by the day you lodge (or by 30 June 2027, if that's earlier), and wait for its acknowledgment before you claim. If it hasn't arrived, you can wait to lodge, or lodge without the deduction and amend once it does.

Where these records go in your return

The business section is the business and professional items schedule. You complete it in myTax, or your agent does.

Income produced mainly (more than 50%) from your own skills or efforts is personal services income, the ATO says, and if the PSI rules apply they change how you report it and what you can deduct. That's worth checking with your accountant.

Need more time to lodge?

Contact the ATO before your due date

If you lodge your own return, phone the ATO on 13 28 66. It generally grants a deferral for exceptional or unforeseen circumstances. A lodgment deferral doesn't defer payment.

A penalty can apply, and interest on tax paid late. Neither is automatic in every case.

The penalty

One penalty unit for every 28 days, or part of 28 days, a return is late, up to five. A penalty unit is $364 from 1 July 2026, so a return one day late can attract $364.

When the ATO applies it

The ATO says it generally doesn't penalise an isolated late return, and warns you first. It generally doesn't issue a penalty notice when a late return results in a refund or a nil result, unless the penalty was applied before you lodged.

Interest on unpaid tax

The general interest charge can apply to tax paid late. It compounds daily, at 11.51% a year for October to December 2026, and GIC incurred from 1 July 2025 isn't deductible. The ATO may offer a payment plan.

If your agent lodges late

You aren't liable for the penalty if you can show you gave the agent all the relevant information in time for the due date, and their late lodgment wasn't because they were reckless or intentionally disregarded the law.

Questions about the due date

I earned very little this year. Do I still need to lodge?

Yes, if you carried on a business in 2025–26. The ATO says there's no threshold for business income. If you had an active ABN at any time in the year, you lodge a return, a nil ($0) return if need be, even if you've stopped trading or only just started, rather than a non-lodgment advice.

Is Monday 2 November an extension?

No. It's the ATO's standing rule for a due date that falls on a weekend. It doesn't move the deadline for getting onto a tax agent's client list, or for lodging overdue returns from earlier years to keep an agent's later date. Both are Saturday 31 October.

What if my business made a loss?

The ATO says a sole trader with a business loss needs to work out whether they can offset it against other income, such as wages, or must defer it under the non-commercial loss rules. That's worth checking with your accountant.

How long do I keep my records?

At least five years for most business records. Some are kept longer, for example records for a depreciating asset: for as long as you have it and five years after you dispose of it.

Keep your records ready

Download an EOFY pack from the Tax page on the web, or invite your accountant to a free, read-only login. Both come with every Bilbee plan, including Free.

Bilbee keeps your records and estimates your tax. It doesn't lodge your return, connect to myGov or give tax advice. You take the figures to myTax or your agent.

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What's in the EOFY pack?
  • Profit and loss
  • Invoice register and income by client
  • Payments received in the year
  • Credit notes
  • Expense ledger, with the receipts
  • Asset register
  • Deductions, home-office log and vehicle log
  • PAYG instalments recorded
  • Tax estimate, with its working

Spreadsheets and receipt files, zipped for the financial year. There's no BAS file if you're not registered for GST.

About the estimate and accountant access

The estimate uses the ATO's rates for the year and covers your business, plus wages or investments if you add them. It isn't a tax return, and it doesn't model trust or partnership distributions, foreign income or the private health insurance rebate.

Inviting your accountant into Bilbee shares your books. It doesn't put you on their ATO client list; only the agent can do that.

Adding records for 2025–26 now?

Bilbee counts income when you're paid (the cash basis), so record the payments you received in the year against your invoices. The ATO says to generally use the cash basis only if your income comes mainly from your own labour; if yours doesn't, check with your accountant. Free includes five invoices a month, and a backdated invoice counts in the month you issue it.

Sources

Checked 29 September 2026. The ATO updates these pages, and an agent's program dates can change with a client's circumstances, so check the source before you rely on a date. This page is general information, not tax advice.

Due dates
Tax agents
What goes in the return
Lodging late