The Australian financial year: what 30 June actually triggers

Why 1 July to 30 June, and who can use a different year

The financial year most Australian individuals, sole traders, and businesses report on runs from 1 July to 30 June — the "year of income" the ATO's systems, forms, and due dates are built around. It is a statutory default, not a law that never bends: section 18 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 lets the Commissioner of Taxation grant an entity leave to adopt a substituted accounting period (SAP) ending on a different date, most often to align an Australian subsidiary's books with an overseas parent's year-end, or to close accounts after a seasonal peak rather than in the middle of one.

A SAP is the exception, not a default election — the ATO expects the entity's circumstances to sit outside the ordinary run of business before it grants one, and adopting one creates a transitional return covering more or less than twelve months at the switch. For everything that follows on this page, "financial year" means the standard 1 July–30 June year unless a business has that specific ATO approval on file.

This matters because every date downstream — STP finalisation, the taxable payments annual report, the tax return itself — is expressed relative to the financial year's end. A business on a SAP is working to a different sequence entirely, set out when the Commissioner grants the approval.

The sequence after 30 June: STP, TPAR, and tax returns

Three deadlines follow 30 June in order, each with a different trigger and a different owner. Single Touch Payroll finalisation comes first: employers make a finalisation declaration confirming that year's STP data is complete and correct, due 14 July for most employees. Closely held payees — family members or directors paid informally, common in small and family businesses — get a later date, 30 September, reflecting that their pay data is often not finalised on the same payroll cycle as arm's-length staff.

The taxable payments annual report (TPAR) is next, due 28 August, and only applies to businesses in specific industries the ATO requires to report contractor payments — building and construction, cleaning, courier and road freight, IT, and security/investigation/surveillance services among them. A business outside those industries has no TPAR obligation at all; whether a given business is in scope is worth confirming with its agent rather than assumed either way.

Income tax returns follow last, on two different timetables. Self-lodged individual and sole trader returns are due 31 October. Returns lodged through a registered tax agent generally run on that agent's own lodgment program, which can extend well past October for clients added to the agent's client list before that date — the exact extended date depends on entity type and the agent's program, not one fixed date every business can assume.

Planning the June close before 30 June arrives

The businesses that find 30 June straightforward are usually the ones that stopped treating it as a single-day event months earlier. Reconciling bank and card accounts monthly through the year, rather than catching up in a June scramble, means the final reconciliation is a check, not a rebuild. The same goes for the fixed asset register and debtor/creditor reviews — updated as transactions happen, not reconstructed from twelve months of invoices in the last week of the financial year.

Getting records to a registered tax or BAS agent early matters more than the calendar date suggests. An agent's lodgment program capacity fills well before 31 October, and a business added to that agent's client list earlier is better placed to use whatever extended timetable the program allows. Clean, reconciled books handed over in July sit further ahead in that queue than the same books handed over in October.