Tag: CCS Balancing

Categories
CCS Important Date

Confirm income by 30 June 2021 or risk losing Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS)

Families need to confirm their 2018–19 income and 2019–20 income with Services Australia by 30 June 2021 or risk losing Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS).

Confirming income is part of the annual balancing process to ensure families are paid the right amount of CCS and ACCS.

Two important balancing deadlines fall on 30 June 2021.

Confirming 2018–19 income

Families who missed the first deadline must confirm their 2018–19 income by 30 June 2021.

If they don’t, they may need to pay back all the CCS they got in 2018–19.

They will also lose their eligibility for both CCS and ACCS from 12 July 2021.

Confirming 2019–20 income

All families must confirm their 2019–20 income before the first deadline on 30 June.

If they don’t their CCS and ACCS payments will stop. This means they’ll need to pay full fees when they use child care.

Services Australia can start their CCS and ACCS payments again but only after families have confirmed their income.

This means families may miss out on payments they may have otherwise got.

How to confirm income

Families can confirm their income for those two financial years by:

  • lodging their tax return, or
  • telling Services Australia they don’t need to lodge a tax return.

If you have any questions please visit Services Australia website.

Categories
CCS News

If you don’t confirm your 2018–19 income by 31 March, you’ll lose your Child Care Subsidy

Did you get Child Care Subsidy for 2018-19?

If you got Child Care Subsidy (CCS) for the 2018-19 financial year, you must confirm your income. If you haven’t, do it now.

If you don’t confirm your income by 31 March 2021, your CCS will reduce to 0%. This means you’ll need to pay full fees when you access child care.

The deadline for confirming your income was extended from 30 June 2020 to 31 March 2021 because of COVID-19.

If you confirm your income after 31 March 2021 we can start your CCS again.

But if there’s a gap between your CCS stopping and starting again, you’ll miss out on CCS for that time.

Letters were sent to families in February 2021 asking them to confirm their income.

How to confirm your income

You don’t need to call or visit Services Australia to confirm your income.

You need to either:

  • lodge your tax return with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
  • tell us you don’t need to lodge one and confirm your income online.

If you have a partner, they’ll need to do this too. If you separated during the year, Services Australia will also need your ex-partner’s income.

To check if you need to lodge a return, use the Do I need to lodge a tax return? tool on ato.gov.au.

If you’ve lodged your tax return, the ATO will send Services Australia your income information. Services Australia usually get this within 28 days from when you get your Notice of Assessment.

If you or your partner don’t need to lodge a tax return, you need to let Services Australia know.

You must do this, even if you’ve told the ATO that you don’t need to lodge. You can do this and confirm your income for the year using either your:

  • Centrelink online account through myGov
  • Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

Where to find more information

For more information about Child Care Subsidy go to servicesaustralia.gov.au/ccstimelimits.

Categories
CCS News

2019–20 CCS balancing started

The Child Care Subsidy (CCS) balancing process (also known as reconciliation) is underway for the 2018‑19 and 2019‑20 financial years.

What is “balancing”?
Balancing, also referred to as “reconciliation”, is the process that occurs after the end of each financial year where Services Australia compares families’ income estimates with their actual adjusted taxable income to ensure families receive their correct Child Care Subsidy (CCS) entitlement.

What do families need to do?
Families will need to take action so Services Australia can balance their CCS. They will need to either:

  • lodge a tax return(s), or
  • tell Services Australia they are not required to lodge a tax return. Families can do this by completing an Advise non-lodgement of tax return using their Centrelink online account through myGov or through the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

Important: Even if a family has told the ATO they don’t need to lodge, they must still do an Advise non-lodgement of tax return with Services Australia.

CCS balancing for 2019–20 financial year
Balancing CCS for the 2019–20 financial year starts from 10 August 2020.

If Services Australia has paid a family too much during the financial year, they won’t finalise balancing the family’s payments straight away. This is because they have paused a range of debt activities due to COVID-19.

CCS balancing for 2018–19 financial year
Balancing for the 2018–19 financial year is still underway.

Some families still have not confirmed their 2018–19 income, which means they may not have received the correct CCS entitlement for the 2018–19 financial year.

If a family received CCS for 2018–19 and haven’t confirmed their family income by 31 March 2021, their CCS will reduce to 0 per cent from 5 April 2021. This means families will need to be charged full fees for child care they use.