Two million taxpayers rush to cash in on cuts

Almost two million Australians have already filed their income tax returns, less than a fortnight after the Coalition’s tax plan passed parliament.

Two million Australians have already submitted their tax returns, rushing to get their hands on tax cuts. Picture: Supplied

Almost two million Australians have already filed their income tax returns, rushing to get their hands on up to $1080 in tax cuts less than a fortnight after they passed parliament.

An Australian Taxation Office spokesman said today the ATO had received 1.96m lodgements since July 1.

A spokesman for Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said 605,000 Australians had so far received $1.429bn in refunds, adding up to an average refund of $2,361.00 per person.

The ATO spokesman attributed a website crash last Friday which prevented people from lodging their tax returns to a “technical issue” which he said was fully resolved on Friday night.

The latest ATO figures show the rush to gain the tax refunds has accelerated since last week when 650,000 taxpayers had filed tax returns by July 8 and one million had filed by last Saturday.

Stage one of the Morrison government’s tax cuts plan, which passed parliament earlier this month, will see taxpayers earning between $48,000 and $90,000 receive the full $1080 tax cut.

The offset tapers off for Australians on up to $126,000.

The ATO says tax returns filed electronically are currently taking six days to two weeks to process.

The $1.43bn in refunds will provide a cash injection into the economy on top of two interest rate cuts in the past two months by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and RBA governor Philip Lowe both last week moved to provide reassurance that the economy remained sound and that the tax cuts, the government’s infrastructure program and interest rate cuts were underpinning growth.

“The outlook is being supported by our lower interest rates, by your tax cuts, by higher levels of investment in infrastructure, by a pick up in the resources sector and the stabilisation of the housing market,’’ Dr Lowe said after meeting Mr Frydenberg last Thursday.

Mr Frydenberg lashed out at media criticism of Dr Lowe’s comments last Friday in which he “100 per cent’’ agreed with the Treasurer’s assessment that the “economy is growing and the fundamentals are strong’’.

Speaking on the ABC Insiders program on Sunday, Mr Frydenberg said: “The bank is independent and governor Philip Lowe is a very respected figure. And Treasurers, prime ministers, have productive and constructive dialogue. The fact that we sat down for over two hours, exchanged notes on the economy and went through in detail the infrastructure pipeline, is a positive development, not to be looked at in any other way.’’