Income Statement “Not tax ready” – What it means (and what to do)
Seeing “Not tax ready” in your ATO Income Statement can be confusing—especially when you’re ready to lodge your tax return.
What You’ll Need ✅
Before we confirm anything, please have this ready:
✅ ATO Income Statement screenshot/PDF (showing the “Tax Not Ready” status and amounts)
✅ The correct payslip from that employer (details below)
Step-by-Step: How we check if you can lodge anyway
1️⃣ Check your Income Statement status in ATO
Log into myGov → ATO Online Services → Employment → Income statements and find the employer that shows Tax Not Ready.
You’ll usually see a red box when it’s not finalised.
2️⃣ Send us the right payslip (this part matters)
We need the payslip that matches the end of the financial year we’re lodging for.
Case A — You stopped working for that employer before the end of the FY
➡️ Send us the last payslip you ever received from that employer (your final payslip for that job).
Case B — You worked until the end of the FY (FY 2025–26 ends 30 June 2026)
➡️ Send us the payslip for the last week of June (the last payslip that covers the financial-year period we’re lodging).
Pro Tax Tip: We want the payslip where the YTD totals are fully updated for the period.
3️⃣ We compare payslip totals vs ATO totals
We compare the Year-to-date (YTD) figures on your payslip against the amounts in your ATO Income Statement, mainly:
- Gross / Earnings (YTD)
- Tax withheld (YTD)
- (If applicable) Super
✅ If the payslip YTD totals match what’s shown in ATO, then usually there’s no real issue and we can lodge your tax return even if it still shows “Tax Not Ready.”
When you should wait (or double-check first) ⚠️
We’ll recommend waiting (or asking the employer) if:
- Payslip totals don’t match ATO
- Something looks missing or incomplete
- Employer mentions they’re doing adjustments/corrections
- You have multiple employers and one statement is clearly unfinished
ATO’s own guidance is that if you lodge before finalisation, you must review/confirm the pre-filled info and understand it could change (and may require an amendment). That’s exactly why we do the payslip cross-check first.