Provision of Tax File Number (TFN) for family assistance and Paid Parental Leave scheme payments 007-07010020

A TFN statement can be one of the following:

• The person's TFN and/or partner's TFN provided in writing. For example, written on a claim form or recorded in a document such as a Tax Notice of Assessment, or a letter from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
• A completed TFN application/enquiry (NAT 1432 or NAT 1589) if the person or their partner has a TFN but cannot produce it. The form authorises the ATO to provide the TFN to Services Australia, or to advise that the person does not have a TFN
• A completed TFN Application for individuals living outside Australia (NAT 2628) if the person or their partner has a TFN but cannot produce it. The form authorises the ATO to either provide the TFN to Services Australia or advise that the person does not have a TFN
• If the person or their partner has applied to the ATO for a TFN, authorises ATO to either provide their TFN to Services Australia or advise that the person's application has been refused or withdrawn

• for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) or Stillborn Baby Payment (SBP) claims, the customer and their partner (if they have a partner) at the time they claim
• for Parental Leave Pay (PPL) (only) claims, only the customer is required at the time they claim

Only the customer can provide their or their partner's TFN.

The customer must make a TFN statement on the claim.

The partner of the customer claiming can make the other two types of TFN statements (see above) on the claim form or on the TFN application or enquiry (NAT 1432, NAT 1589 or NAT 2628) which should be lodged at Services Australia with the claim form.

The customer claiming can advise Services Australia of their TFN over the phone if they or their partner have made a TFN statement that did not include the TFN and, they are able to provide the TFN at a later date. Note: a TFN is not acceptable over the phone when the customer is being reviewed due to a Personal Identity Discrepancy.

The claimant should be advised in writing that outstanding TFN details or an authorisation to obtain them must be lodged within 28 days of the letter being received by the claimant.

If a required TFN statement is not lodged within 28 days, the claimant should be advised that the claim is not effective.

The claimant should be told that a claim which is not effective cannot be reinstated by any action of the Service Officer, and that if they want to test their eligibility for FTB, SBP or PPL at some time in the future, they may need to lodge a new claim.

In some circumstances if the customer lodges the TFN details at a later date a new claim can be re-indexed using information from the initial claim. See Not effective, rejection, or withdrawal of claim for Family Tax Benefit or Stillborn Baby Payment.

CCS:

For online and staff assisted claims, no letters are issued advising the customer to provide their TFN(s). This information is included at the ‘Next Steps’ stage of their claim, and forms notification to the customer that this information is required to enable their claim to be assessed. If not assessed, CCS cannot be approved. This also creates a Task in their online account.

Where a TFN is missing from a paper claim, a Q888 may be issued to the customer requesting this information.

If TFN(s) are not provided within 28 days of submitting a claim, the claim will be made not effective and the customer will need to submit a new claim, noting the maximum 28 day backdating provisions that apply to this payment.

CCS cannot be granted without TFN(s) being supplied or an exemption being approved. If CCS is granted with a TFN mismatch, entitlement will reduce to zero after 56 days and will not be reinstated until TFN(s) are supplied. CCS entitlement will be reinstated from the date the nil rate applied. Note: if the TFN was provided before 9 February 2018 following a mismatch, select the Reassess Customer icon (top right corner of Child Care summary page) to force a reassessment of any periods of nil entitlement. If this is not undertaken, the customer will automatically be reassessed for these periods at reconciliation.

The claimant cannot be exempted from the requirement to provide their tax file number. Exemptions that are valid for other payments are not valid for Family Assistance payments.

Exemptions from supplying a partner's TFN may only apply where:

• a customer is unable to obtain their partner or previous partner's TFN or a TFN statement from their partner or previous partner because they
• are violent
• are imprisoned for life
• are seriously disabled or ill
• refuse to supply their TFN (social worker or Indigenous Specialist Officer (ISO) involvement is required), or
• A claim is made for a bereavement payment after the death of another person. In this case, the claimant may be exempted from providing the deceased person's TFN, or the deceased person's partner's TFN statement, if this would be unduly difficult or distressing to the claimant or distressing to the deceased person's partner
  Note: the above exemptions do not apply to CCS

A temporary exemption may apply for a customer supplying a partner TFN when the partner is

• away for work or holiday
• in prison with a known release
• missing whereabouts unknown (may be indefinite if more than 12 months), or
• a non-resident living overseas in a remote location (or in a refugee camp) and is unable to complete the required form for a TFN

For temporary exemptions, in Customer First create a manual review on the Review Registration (RVR) screen and complete the fields as follows:

• Service Reason: customer's payment type
• Review Reason: select most appropriate reason
• Due Date: as directed by Level 2 Policy Helpdesk
• Source: INT
• Date of Receipt: today's date
• Notes: 'Temporary TFN exemption review. Follow up if ptr TFN has been provided. Return to OB 007-07010020 to action.'
• Keywords: FTBTFN
• Workgroup: leave blank
• Position: leave blank
• Transfer to Region: leave blank

The review will mature on the Due Date coded in the RVR activity. Workload Management will allocate the review for manual action.

For further guidelines for granting an exemption, see References.

For CCS, see Exemption from providing Tax File Numbers when claiming Child Care Subsidy (CCS)

If a customer is receiving Family Tax Benefit (FTB) or Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and is asked to provide a TFN statement (e.g. customer becomes a member of a couple and the partner's TFN is needed), the same procedure should be followed as for a claim.

Becoming partnered

• If a single customer without saved TFN status is linked to a partner who has a TFN exemption (acceptable for other payments, but not for FTB/CCB), delete the exemption reason from the FTB TFN line only on the TFN Details (TFN) screen. This will set up a 28 day grace period for the TFN to be provided. A review will mature at the end of this period if the partner is not TFN compliant to cancel FTB. This will not affect any payment the partner is receiving
• For customers who have become partnered: if the partner does not have a TFN or exemption, a current system issue applies where the auto grace period is being applied incorrectly from the date the customer has been partnered, rather than the date the customer is requested to provide the TFN. The following is an interim process to avoid cancellation of the customer's payment before the allowed 28 day grace period - in Customer First:
• code an exemption for the partner's TFN, and
• issue a Q777 letter to request the TFN, and
• create a manual review on the Review Registration (RVR) screen and complete the fields as follows:
  Service Reason: customer's payment type
  Review Reason: select most appropriate reason
  Due Date: 28 days from date Q777 issued
  Source: INT
  Date of Receipt: today's date
  Notes: 'Q777 issued xx/xx/xxxx. Check on provision of TFN and return to OB 007-07010020 to action.'
  Keywords: FTBTFN
  Workgroup: leave blank
  Position: leave blank
  Transfer to Region: leave blank
• The review will mature on the Due Date coded in the RVR activity. Workload Management will allocate the review for manual action

Cancel payment

If the TFN statement is not provided as requested after 28 days, then the customer's FTB payment must be cancelled from date paid to + 1.

Restore payment

• FTB instalment claim: If the customer then provides the TFN by the end of the next financial year, payment can be restored from the date it was cancelled
• FTB past period claims: The customer can provide the TFN at any time in the future

Incorrect cancellation of payment

If the payment has cancelled 'NTP' and information on the customer's record suggests they were not given the full 28 days from the date they were requested to provide the TFN, see Restoration of Family Tax Benefit (FTB).

Re-use provisions exist where customers have previously claimed a family assistance payment and a TFN has been provided and recorded. The system defaults to an authorisation of 'Yes' to allow claims to be processed without the risk of automatic cancellation for non-provision of a TFN.

Due to different legislative provisions for collecting and storing TFNs for Social Security and family assistance payments, Service Officers will be required to ensure that TFNs are not re-used in the TFN screen in cases where a person has previously claimed a social security payment and is now claiming a family assistance payment (or vice versa).