As in previous years, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) will close during the Christmas-New Year holiday period.
This means that they will be suspending the return and form processing from 3.00pm AEDT Friday 21 December 2012 until 9.00am AEDT Wednesday 2 January 2013. As a result, returns lodged from mid-December to early January will take longer than usual to process.
The ATO operator based phone services will also be unavailable from 24 December 2012 - 1 January 2013.
To increase the likelihood of receiving your notice of assessment and any associated refund before the holiday period, we recommend you lodge your return or other forms electronically by 6 December 2012.
For returns lodged electronically between 7 December and 21 December, refunds are expected to issue from Wednesday 2 January 2013. Refunds for returns lodged from 22 December 2012 will start to issue in the week beginning 14 January 2013.