Appendices

Part four

Appendix 8: Family Tax Benefit reconciliation data

The table below shows reconciliation outcomes for Family Tax Benefit recipients in the relevant entitlement year, as at 30 June 2008.

Table 4.22 | Reconciliation outcomes
		Entitlement Year
		2005–06	2006–07
Top-Ups	Number of customers	1,826,942	1,716,803
	Per cent of total customer number	85%	85%
	Total amount	$3,392m	$3,404m
	Average amount	$1,857	$1,983
Nil Change	Number of customers	149,240	146,938
Nil Change	Per cent of total customer number	7%	7%
Overpayments	Number of customers	179,696	152,866
	Per cent of total customer number	8%	8%
	Total amount	$224m	$197m
	Average amount	$1,246	$1,291
Total	Number of customers	2,155,878	2,016,607

The table below shows the following information for customers who had been reconciled as at 30 June 2008:

number of Family Tax Benefit recipients with outstanding reconciliation debts in each entitlement year
total amount of outstanding Family Tax Benefit reconciliation debts for each entitlement year
number of Family Tax Benefit recipients who had part or all of their tax refund withheld to offset a debt from the same entitlement year.

Table 4.23 | Outstanding debts
		2002–03	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07
ACT	Number of customers	138	160	294	441	807
	Total outstanding debt	$221,108	$256,001	$486,423	$669,697	$1,170,611
	Customers with tax refund withheld	3,297	1,015	1,547	1,271	1,172
NSW	Number of customers	2,903	3,255	5,856	10,163	17,675
	Total outstanding debt	$5,209,445	$6,531,305	$10,723,614	$15,687,751	$27,086,000
	Customers with tax refund withheld	65,279	19,335	25,605	23,426	20,733
NT	Number of customers	141	138	238	363	621
	Total outstanding debt	$187,808	$234,557	$367,965	$467,693	$847,015
	Customers with tax refund withheld	2,244	473	871	759	700
Qld	Number of customers	1,770	2,103	3,906	6,926	12,445
	Total outstanding debt	$2,857,804	$4,104,956	$6,810,389	$10,786,237	$19,374,305
	Customers with tax refund withheld	44,163	10,906	14,258	14,491	14,136
SA	Number of customers	508	539	1,139	2,082	4,084
	Total outstanding debt	$666,880	$1,033,631	$1,910,503	$2,953,401	$6,034,504
	Customers with tax refund withheld	16,475	3,993	5,382	5,013	4,724
Tas	Number of customers	159	186	374	636	1,160
	Total outstanding debt	$216,733	$306,241	$576,605	$849,816	$1,677,975
	Customers with tax refund withheld	5,369	880	1,421	1,411	1,307
Vic	Number of customers	1,872	2,112	4,176	7,306	13,509
	Total outstanding debt	$3,078,419	$3,885,291	$7,409,18	$10,975,780	$20,387,498
	Customers with tax refund withheld	53,402	14,221	18,859	17,575	16,639
WA	Number of customers	910	1,038	2,062	3,835	7,647
	Total outstanding debt	$1,380,834	$1,997,980	$3,699,877	$5,944,793	$12,614,871
	Customers with tax refund withheld	21,423	5,810	8,215	7,692	7,996
N/R**	Number of customers	1,412	1,069	1,199	1,228	1,135
	Total outstanding debt	$1,938,990	$1,974,826	$2,303,404	$1,944,993	$1,827,328
	Customers with tax refund withheld	3,227	1,055	1,321	1,074	901
Total	Number of customers	9,813	10,600	19,244	32,980	59,083
	Total outstanding debt	$15,758,020	$20,324,787	$34,287,969	$50,280,161	$91,020,108
	Customers with tax refund withheld	214,929	57,688	77,479	72,712	68,308

* Excludes customers who had a tax refund withheld to offset a debt from a previous year.
** The 'N/R' (not recorded) category covers customers with overseas addresses, addresses that are post office boxes (rather than street addresses), and invalid addresses (e.g. for people who are no longer customers).

State is the state in which the customer resided at 30 June 2007, which may differ from when the debt was incurred.

The table below shows the average adjusted taxable income (ATI*), by state and territory, for all Family Tax Benefit customers and their primary partners who had been reconciled as at 30 June 2008 and had a debt in the relevant entitlement year.

Table 4.24| Average incomes by state/territory for customers with a debt
	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07
ACT	$62,047	$82,264	$90,527	$95,598	$100,334
NSW	$55,261	$78,218	$84,195	$90,035	$95,553
NT	$46,796	$67,996	$76,897	$83,963	$88,136
Qld	$50,835	$73,177	$79,768	$87,383	$93,188
SA	$51,901	$71,866	$79,049	$84,510	$90,305
Tas	$46,642	$67,625	$75,034	$81,884	$86,516
Vic	$55,405	$76,091	$82,537	$88,881	$94,233
WA	$53,795	$75,568	$84,107	$94,381	$101,690
N/R*	$52,596	$72,888	$81,392	$88,097	$94,947
Total	$53,697	$75,642	$82,363	$89,194	$94,977

The table below shows the average actual adjusted taxable income (ATI) by payment type, of customers and their primary partners who were entitled to Family Tax Benefit Part A at any stage in the relevant financial year and who had been reconciled as at 30 June 2008.

Table 4.25 | Average incomes by payment type
	Average actual adjusted taxable income
	2006–07*	2005–06*
ATO lump sum	$73,143	$69,890
Centrelink lump sum	$55,644	$56,069
Instalments	$46,207	$44,978
Fortnightly/lump sum combination	$60,388	$55,233

* Customers with zero actual ATI are excluded in the calculation of average actual ATI.

The table below shows the distribution of actual adjusted taxable income (ATI) for customers and their primary partners who were entitled to FTB Part A or FTB Part B at any stage during the relevant financial year, and who had been reconciled as at 30 June 2008.

Table 4.26 | Ranged income
	2006–07		2005–06
Actual ATI ($)	Customers entitled to FTB Part A	Customers entitled to FTB Part B	Customers entitled to FTB Part A	Customers entitled to FTB Part B
0 to less than 20,000	445,623	441,688	500,751	496,288
20,000 to less than 40,000	443,371	433,440	475,727	463,206
40,000 to less than 60,000	340,796	281,534	377,702	303,679
60,000 to less than 80,000	330,541	191,078	365,220	201,498
80,000 to less than 100,000	239,590	97,957	237,015	93,557
100,000 to less than 120,000	46,398	41,857	30,966	38,425
120,000 to less than 140,000	3,470	19,843	2,409	17,759
140,000 to less than 160,000	853	10,373	710	9,164
160,000 to less than 180,000	326	5,814	309	5,144
180,000 to less than 200,000	178	3,588	170	3,338
200,000 to less than 300,000	225	6,908	241	6,636
300,000 to less than 400,000	44	1,782	46	1,724
400,000 to less than 500,000	20	771	26	762
500,000 to less than 600,000	‹20	333	‹20	332
600,000 to less than 700,000	‹20	199	‹20	187
700,000 to less than 800,000	‹20	119	‹20	123
800,000 to less than 900,000	‹20	91	‹20	83
900,000 to less than 1,000,000	‹20	72	‹20	61
1,000,000 or more	37	251	‹20	174
Total	1,851,491	1,537,698	1,991,343	1,642,140

Please note: For the above table, Centrelink and ATO customers who were entitled to lump sum grants and were not subsequently reconciled are not included. Analysis shows this group of customers is too small to significantly alter the income distribution.

For privacy reasons, cells containing fewer than 20 observations have been reported as "<20".

There are many reasons why families with high incomes can legitimately receive FTB Part A. These include:

Customers with large families.
Customers who were entitled to an income support payment for part of the year.
Customers whose personal circumstances have changed during the year. For example, customers who were partnered for part of the year, and had their FTB Part A entitlements cancelled for the period when they were partnered and had income above the threshold, but were entitled to FTB Part A for the period when they were not partnered.
Certain groups of customers are free of the FTB Part A income test.
Child Disability Allowance (CDA) recipients are eligible for FTB Part A due to the CDA savings provisions originally introduced in 1993. CDA was not asset or income tested and CDA qualifications also entitled families to a minimum amount of Family Allowance free of any means test prior to January 1993.
Blind Disability Support Pensioners receive their income support payments and FTB Part A free of income testing in accordance with existing legislation.

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Contents

Appendices

Part four

Appendix 8: Family Tax Benefit reconciliation data