How five minutes now can help net you a bigger tax refund

June 14, 2026 — 5:00am

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Depending on when you read this, we’ll be almost exactly two weeks away from July 1, a date that comes with a tingling sense of anticipation for some (accountants, other nerds), and is absolutely meaningless for some others (almost everyone else). Where do I fit into that spectrum? I’ll never tell!

Nerd or not, July’s coming does mean we all need to start thinking about tax time (unless you’re retired and living off a tax-free income stream, in which case, this might not be of much use), and with two weeks to go, now is the time to prepare if you haven’t already.

For most of us, our tax is probably pretty set-and-forget, with not much changing year-to-year – or at least so we think.

But a recent survey from H&R Block showed while most of us believe our tax is easy, 71 per cent of us ran into at least one factor in the past financial year that complicated things. These include working from home, receiving government payments, making investments, having multiple income sources, or owning an investment property.

Often this occurs because when our work or living situations change, our tax habits often stay the same, as most taxpayers tend to stick with whatever worked last year.........

© Brisbane Times