EOFY 2026 is weeks away and the ATO has unprecedented visibility over your finances. Here is what to do before 30 June.
As the end of the 2025-26 financial year approaches, Australians are once again preparing to gather receipts, review deductions and lodge their tax returns.
While tax time presents an opportunity to claim legitimate deductions and potentially receive a refund, it also represents one of the busiest compliance periods for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). With increasingly sophisticated data-matching technology and access to vast amounts of third-party information, the ATO’s ability to detect errors and omissions has never been greater.
For taxpayers, understanding the ATO’s focus areas and taking steps now to prepare can help avoid costly mistakes and unwanted scrutiny.
ATO focus areas in 2026
The ATO has consistently identified three areas where it sees the highest rates of errors in individual tax returns:
- Work-related expenses
- Rental property deductions
- Omitted income
These remain key compliance priorities heading into EOFY 2026.
The ATO continues to use advanced data-matching programs that receive information directly from employers, banks, share registries, cryptocurrency exchanges, government agencies, rental platforms and financial institutions.
This means taxpayers should assume that most income sources are already visible to the ATO.
The growth of the gig economy has also created a greater compliance focus on side hustle income. Whether income is earned through ridesharing, food delivery, online content creation, consulting, freelance work, online marketplaces or digital platforms, taxpayers are generally required to declare it.
Many people mistakenly assume that small amounts of side income fall below the ATO’s radar. In reality, data-matching capabilities mean undeclared income is becoming increasingly easy to identify.
Get organised before 30 June
One of the biggest mistakes taxpayers make is waiting until tax time to start gathering information.
EOFY preparation should ideally begin before 30 June. Taxpayers should review their records, ensure receipts have been retained and identify any deductions they may be entitled to claim.
For employees, this may include:
- Union fees
- Professional memberships
- Work-related travel expenses
- Self-education costs
- Home office expenses
Investors should ensure they have records relating to dividend income, managed funds, share transactions and rental property expenses.
Business owners and sole traders should review debtors, asset purchases and deductible expenses before year-end.
Taking time now to organise records can significantly reduce stress when it comes time to lodge.
Don’t blindly rely on pre-filled information
Pre-filled tax return data has made the lodgement process easier than ever. However, many taxpayers mistakenly believe that pre-filled information is complete and automatically correct.
It isn’t.
Pre-filled data often arrives progressively throughout July and August as financial institutions and employers provide information to the ATO. Lodging too early can sometimes result in missing information that has not yet been reported.
More importantly, taxpayers remain legally responsible for the accuracy of their return regardless of whether information has been pre-filled.
Errors can occur, information may be incomplete and some deductible expenses will never appear in pre-filled reports.
Taxpayers should carefully review all income and deduction information before lodging and ensure it aligns with their own records.
The convenience of technology should never replace proper verification.
Side hustles remain under the microscope
One of the fastest-growing areas of ATO attention is side hustle income.
Rising living costs have encouraged many Australians to supplement their primary income through secondary activities. These can include:
- Ride-sharing services
- Food delivery platforms
- Freelance consulting
- Online tutoring
- Social media content creation
- Selling goods through online marketplaces
- Short-term accommodation arrangements
Many taxpayers fail to appreciate that income from these activities is generally taxable even if it is irregular, part-time or only generates modest amounts.
Equally important is understanding which expenses may be deductible and maintaining records to support those claims.
The days of assuming cash jobs or platform income will go unnoticed are rapidly disappearing.
Rental property claims continue to attract scrutiny
Rental properties remain one of the most heavily reviewed areas of individual taxation.
The ATO regularly identifies mistakes involving:
- Interest deductions
- Repairs versus capital improvements
- Apportionment of private use
- Borrowing expenses
- Depreciation claims
Property investors should ensure that expenses claimed are genuinely related to earning rental income and that adequate documentation exists to support each deduction.
Particular care should be taken when distinguishing between immediate repairs and capital improvements, as the tax treatment can differ significantly.
With the ATO receiving extensive data from property managers, financial institutions and state-based land authorities, inconsistencies are increasingly likely to be detected.
Work-from-home claims still require evidence
Although working from home has become a permanent feature of many workplaces, taxpayers should not assume that all home office expenses are deductible.
The ATO’s fixed-rate method remains available, but taxpayers must still maintain records demonstrating actual hours worked from home.
Many taxpayers continue to misunderstand the rules surrounding home office claims, particularly where hybrid working arrangements exist.
The key principle remains that deductions must be directly connected to earning assessable income and supported by appropriate evidence.
The fact that a taxpayer occasionally works from home does not automatically entitle them to claim every household expense.
Common EOFY mistakes
Every year, similar mistakes appear in tax returns across Australia.
Some of the most common include:
- Claiming expenses without receipts
- Overstating work-related deductions
- Forgetting secondary income sources
- Incorrectly claiming rental property expenses
- Assuming pre-filled information is complete
- Claiming private expenses as business or employment deductions
Many of these errors are not deliberate. However, the ATO generally expects taxpayers to take reasonable care when preparing their returns.
Even genuine mistakes can lead to amended assessments, interest charges and, in some cases, penalties.
Record-keeping remains critical
If there is one message taxpayers should take into EOFY 2026, it is the importance of record-keeping.
The strongest tax deduction in the world is worthless if it cannot be substantiated.
The ATO generally requires taxpayers to retain records supporting deductions for at least five years. Depending on the nature of the asset or transaction, longer retention periods may apply.
Taxpayers should maintain:
- Tax invoices and receipts
- Bank statements
- Logbooks
- Rental property records
- Work-from-home records
- Income documentation
Electronic record-keeping systems and receipt storage apps have made compliance easier than ever, but taxpayers still need to ensure records are complete and accessible.
Good record-keeping not only supports deductions but can significantly reduce the stress and cost of responding to an ATO review.
Conclusion
EOFY 2026 arrives at a time when the ATO has unprecedented visibility over taxpayer affairs. Through extensive data matching and enhanced compliance programs, the agency is better equipped than ever to identify omissions and errors.
The good news is that most compliance issues can be avoided through careful preparation, accurate reporting and thorough record-keeping.
Taxpayers who take the time to organise their affairs before 30 June, review pre-filled information carefully and maintain appropriate supporting documentation will place themselves in the strongest position to navigate tax time with confidence.
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