Schedule 1 of 6 · The person’s last return

The date of death tax return

A date of death tax return is the person’s final individual return: it covers their income from 1 July of the year they died up to the day they died. It is usually lodged by the executor or administrator, and it is kept apart from any return for the estate, which reports what the person’s assets earn after the death.

General information, not tax or legal advice. The Australian Taxation Office’s deceased estates pages are the official place to check each step, and a registered tax agent can advise on a particular estate.

1.1Whether a return is needed

The ATO says a date of death return must be lodged when any one of these was true of the person in the income year they died:

some of their income, interest and dividends included, had tax withheld from it;
they earned more taxable income than the tax-free threshold;
they had lodged returns in earlier years, or had returns still outstanding.

If none of these applies, the ATO still wants to hear: the step is a non-lodgment advice form, with the word DECEASED and the date of death written where the form asks for a reason. Once the ATO knows of the death, it can say whether any earlier years were never lodged; those returns must be lodged as well, and if a return is not lodged or relevant information is not given, the ATO can assess the amount payable or refundable itself.

1.2The period it covers

The return runs from 1 July of the income year in which the person died to the date of death. Income the estate earns after that date belongs in the estate’s trust return, a different document with its own rules.

Example, with a made-up date

A person dies on 19 November 2025. Their date of death return covers 1 July 2025 to 19 November 2025. The estate’s first income year starts the next day, 20 November 2025, and ends on 30 June 2026. Interest paid into the person’s account on 30 November 2025 is the estate’s income, not theirs.

1.3Lodging it, in order

Be on the ATO’s records. The return can be lodged once the ATO has been told of the death and has recorded who is managing the person’s tax affairs. Usually that is the authorised legal personal representative; if someone else lodges, the ATO assesses the return and decides what to do within the law and its policies.
Find the figures. An authorised legal personal representative can get the person’s tax information, including their tax file number, from the ATO. Anyone else may be helped by the person’s former tax agent, or by the ATO itself.
Use the paper form. The return goes on the paper tax return for individuals. myTax and myGov are closed to this, because they are for a person lodging their own return, and that holds even when the return only claims back franking credits. If the authorised legal personal representative has appointed a tax agent, the agent can prepare and lodge it online.
Mark it as a deceased person’s return. The ATO asks for “DECEASED ESTATE” across the top of the first page, the name given as the legal representative of the person (deceased), the “No” box marked for future returns, and a signature in your own name on the person’s behalf.
Wait for the assessment. The notice of assessment comes to the person who lodged, showing any refund or tax owing. An authorised legal personal representative receives any refund or franking credits; where there isn’t one, the ATO weighs whether it can release them, looking at the will or the rules that apply when there is no will.
Provide for any tax before anything is handed out. Tax owing has to be allowed for before the estate’s assets go to beneficiaries; otherwise the person distributing may be personally liable for it.

1.4What goes in, and what waits for the estate

Where each item belongs, as the ATO divides them
Item	In the date of death return	Elsewhere, or not at all
Income and deductions	What the person earned, and the deductible expenses they incurred, up to the day they died.	Income and deductions of the estate after the death go in the estate’s trust return.
Cost of the return	Tax agent fees and similar costs of preparing it, even when the executor or administrator pays them after the death.	Not applicable.
Capital gains	Gains and losses from CGT events that happened before the death, and any gain or loss triggered at death when the will leaves an asset to a foreign resident, a charity or a super fund.	A sale by the estate for any other reason is reported in the estate’s trust return.
Losses	Tax and capital losses can be used here, and only here.	They can’t pass to the estate. Whatever this return can’t use lapses.
Medicare levy	A person fully or half exempt until their death keeps that exemption for the days of the year they lived; private hospital cover held until death means no surcharge for those days.	Not applicable.
Study and training loans	Nothing to fill in: the ATO works it out from the return.	Above the minimum repayment threshold there is one final repayment; after that, the rest of the debt is cancelled.

1.5When there is no will and no one is appointed

If the person left no will and nobody has been appointed to run the estate within 6 months of the death, the ATO says it may raise an assessment of the estate’s tax liabilities and take steps to recover tax owing. The ATO’s own checklist puts working out who will manage the person’s affairs among its first steps.

The next paper in the inventory is the estate’s own return, which picks up on the day after the death: trust tax returns for the estate.