TPAR Pre-Fill Is Now Live: What to Check Before You Lodge

Before you lodge, check that every business that paid you as a contractor has actually submitted its Taxable Payments Annual Report, or TPAR, because from tax time 2026 that data flows straight into your pre-filled tax return, and lodging too early can leave the pre-fill incomplete. Businesses in building and construction, cleaning, courier, road freight, IT and security or investigation services have until 28 August each year to lodge a TPAR. This year, that deadline matters to more than just the businesses lodging it: for the first time, the payments they report are being pre-filled directly into the tax returns of the contractors they paid.

What a TPAR is, and who has to lodge one

A TPAR tells the ATO what a business paid its contractors over the financial year, covering the invoiced amount, GST and any tax withheld, contractor by contractor. It exists because contractor income has historically been under-reported, and payments visible to the ATO through a business's own reporting close that gap. If your business operates in one of the industries the ATO targets for TPAR, and you pay contractors to do work on your behalf, you likely need to lodge one by 28 August. If you are not sure whether your business is in scope, it is worth checking rather than assuming, since the reporting obligation attaches to the business making the payments, not to the contractors receiving them.

What is new for tax time 2026

From tax time 2026, the ATO uses TPAR data to pre-fill the contractor's own income tax return, in much the same way employment income and bank interest are already pre-filled. In principle, this should make it easier for a contractor to reconcile what they earned with what was reported about them, and it reduces the chance of a business's TPAR figures and a contractor's declared income quietly disagreeing with each other. In practice, it introduces a timing trap that did not exist before, because pre-fill only works once the data it draws on has actually arrived.

The timing trap: lodging before the data has landed

Payers have until 28 August to lodge their TPAR. A business is entitled to use every day of that window, and plenty do. If a contractor lodges their own tax return before all of their payers have actually submitted their reports, their pre-fill will be incomplete, showing some income but not all of it. Nothing forces a contractor to wait, and a return can still be lodged with an incomplete pre-fill. The risk is that it goes unnoticed, because the omission looks the same as correct data rather than missing data, so there is nothing on the screen prompting a second look.

A contractor who works for several businesses in a TPAR industry, courier and delivery work for multiple platforms is a common example, is more exposed to this than one who works for a single payer. Each additional payer is another report that has to land before the pre-fill is genuinely complete, and there is no indicator in myTax that tells you how many are still outstanding.

What contractors should do

• Where practical, hold off lodging until after 28 August, so every payer's TPAR has had the chance to flow through, keeping in mind the 31 October deadline that still applies if you are lodging your own return without a registered agent.
• If you lodge earlier than that, reconcile the pre-filled figures against your own invoices and payment records rather than assuming the pre-fill is complete.
• Keep a running total of what each business actually paid you during the year. It is the only reliable check against a pre-fill that may still be catching up.

What businesses paying contractors should do

If your business is required to lodge a TPAR, lodging earlier in the window, rather than right on 28 August, gives your contractors' pre-fill more time to be accurate before they come to lodge. It also reduces the chance of a last-minute scramble if your bookkeeping records need reconciling against what contractors were actually paid across the year.

It is worth treating TPAR preparation as a reconciliation exercise, not a formality. Each contractor's total needs to match what your accounting records show as paid to them for the year, GST included, which is easiest to check while invoices and payment records are still fresh rather than well after the event. A TPAR that is wrong or late does not just create work for the business that lodges it; it now flows straight into someone else's tax return.

Before you lodge either way

A pre-filled figure is a starting point, not a guarantee. Whether you are the business lodging a TPAR or the contractor relying on what flows from it, the underlying invoices and payment records are still what your return needs to be able to stand behind. If you are unsure whether your business needs to lodge a TPAR, or want a second check on a contractor return before it goes in, we are happy to look at it with you.

Disclaimer: This article contains general information only and does not constitute financial, legal or tax advice. It has been prepared without regard to your objectives, financial situation or needs. Tax and superannuation laws change frequently, and the information in this article may not reflect the current law or may become inaccurate over time. Before acting on anything in this article, you should consider its appropriateness to your circumstances and seek advice from a registered tax agent or qualified adviser.