‘Please explain’: Woman flabbergasted after simple tax return misconception
An Australian woman was flabbergasted after her tax return was drastically different from what she expected. And she’s not alone.
QLD News
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An Australian woman was flabbergasted after her tax return estimate of $3083.35 turned into a refund of just $341.56. In a TikTok video that has since been shared hundreds of times, Skye Michele uploaded the video asking the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to “please explain”.
At the start of the video Skye encouraged people who didn’t work for the ATO “scroll on”.
“This is what I was supposed to get,” she said, pointing at her return estimate figure.
“Then it went to extra processing time because a couple years ago basically my account had got hacked, someone had changed the bank details, absolutely everything. So now everytime I want to go on the ATO [website] I’ve got to call up and get them to unlock it. That happened afterwards.”
After getting the extra processing time notification Skye said she called the ATO asking if they could unlock her account.
“Now this. I s**t you not. Why, am I only getting this? Someone please explain,” she said pointing to the $341.56 refund figure.
Commenters were split, with some suggesting that filing the tax return early may lead to issues around pre-fill information not being available, while others had similar stories.
“This literally is happening to me. The exact situation. I’m furious,” Casey Gilloway wrote.
Another commenter said their refund went from a $3700 return estimate to owing $560.
In another video posted to TikTok, Nat Zelez said she filed her tax return on July 1 instead of waiting until pre-fill information was available.
“So I just got my tax return and I’m not happy,” she said.
“I lodged it and I was so excited. It said I was going to get $5300 back and then I got it this morning and I got $3000.”
Before lodging a tax return on the ATO website a warning appears that the tax return estimate may differ from the final outcome.
Originally published as ‘Please explain’: Woman flabbergasted after simple tax return misconception
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