I earned under $18,200 — do I still need to lodge a tax return?

It was a thin year. Maybe you only started work in March, maybe you were studying, maybe you stepped back to look after a newborn. Whatever the reason, the payslips add up to well under $18,200, and $18,200 is the number everyone knows: below it, no tax. So the natural conclusion is that there is nothing to lodge and nothing to do.

Half of that is right. The ATO does say you usually don't need to lodge a return in that situation. But it attaches a second condition that people skip over, and it expects something from you even when the answer really is no.

The rule, in the ATO's words

The ATO's non-lodgment page (updated 31 August 2026) says you usually don't need to lodge a tax return where your income is under the tax-free threshold of $18,200 and no tax has been withheld from that income. Both conditions, not either.

The second condition is where most thin years fall over. If you were an Australian resident for tax purposes and tax was withheld from your pay under the pay as you go (PAYG) system — the amount your employer takes out of each pay and sends to the ATO — the 2025–26 return instructions list that as reason number one you must lodge. The ATO puts the practical side plainly: if you earn less than the tax-free threshold and pay tax of $1 or more, you can get that tax back, but you need to lodge a tax return to receive it. Staying quiet doesn't mean the ATO keeps nothing; it means the ATO keeps it.

The $18,200 figure also isn't everyone's number. If you became or stopped being an Australian resident part way through the year, your tax-free threshold is lower — the part-year threshold. If you were under 18 on 30 June 2026 and your income wasn't salary or wages, the line is $416. And if you were a foreign resident with Australian income that didn't have final withholding tax taken from it, the line is $1.

Other things that make a return compulsory at any income

The ATO's 2025–26 list of reasons is long, but a handful come up again and again for people on low incomes. You must lodge if you had a reportable fringe benefits amount or reportable employer super contributions on your income statement; if you carried on a business during the year; or if you made a loss, or can claim a loss from an earlier year.

An active ABN deserves its own sentence. The ATO says you won't be able to complete a non-lodgment advice if its records show you had an active ABN during the year — you need to lodge a return instead, which may be a nil ($0) return, and that applies whether you had only just started trading or had already stopped. If the business is finished, cancelling the ABN from the date you ceased is a separate step, and the ATO expects lodgment and payment obligations to be met before you do it.

Working holiday makers on a 417 or 462 visa sit on a different line entirely: a return is required once Australian-source taxable income reaches $45,001, and below that the ATO does not ask for a non-lodgment advice.

The two most common mistakes

The first is treating $18,200 as the only question. The number that matters just as much is the tax withheld figure on your income statement in myGov. If it isn't zero, the default is that you lodge.

The second is assuming that not needing to lodge means doing nothing. The ATO's instruction is that if you don't need to lodge, you usually still need to tell it by lodging a non-lodgment advice (sometimes called a 'return not necessary'), and to send it by 31 October after the end of the income year. The ATO's stated reason is simple: so it doesn't send you reminders. There are exceptions — for example if you have already told the ATO you won't need to lodge for all future years, or you are applying for a refund of franking credits instead — but they are specific, not a general pass.

What to do before 31 October

Start with the ATO's own check. In myGov, open ATO, go to Manage tax returns, select the Not lodged tab and choose 'Do I need to lodge?' for 2025–26. The ATO says this version gives a more accurate result because it uses the information it already holds about you. There is also a public web version of the same tool.

If the answer is that you need to lodge, lodge — that is the only route by which tax withheld during the year is worked out against what you actually owe. If the answer is no, the non-lodgment advice is a few clicks: in ATO online services select Tax, then Lodgments, then Non-lodgment advice. You can say at the same time that you won't need to lodge for future years, and the ATO says you receive immediate confirmation online. It can also be done for earlier years back to 2000 if a past year was left hanging.

Two side notes. If you received dividends with franking credits and don't need to lodge, you can still apply to have those credits refunded through a separate form. And if your family receives Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Subsidy, the ATO notes you also need to tell Centrelink when you and your spouse don't need to lodge, and confirm your income there.

This is general information current as at September 2026, drawn from the ATO's 2025–26 'Do you need to lodge a tax return?' instructions and its non-lodgment advice guidance. It is not advice about your circumstances, and it makes no prediction about any refund. If your year involved a change in residency, a part-year threshold or an ABN you're not sure is still active, those are exactly the cases where the answer is less obvious than the headline number.

Our individual tax returns service handles both outcomes — lodging the return, or confirming you don't need one. The income tax calculator on this site will show where a given income sits for 2026–27, and our earlier piece on the part-year tax-free threshold covers the first return after arriving in Australia.