EOFY Tax Checklist for Freelancers: Get Ready for June 30

The end of the financial year is approaching, and for freelancers, that means it’s time to get organised. This EOFY tax checklist for freelancers covers everything you need to do before June 30, 2026 to maximise your deductions, avoid last-minute panic, and make lodgement as painless as possible. Whether you’re a seasoned sole trader or filing your first freelancer return, work through this list now and you’ll thank yourself in July.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information only and does not constitute tax advice. Consult a registered tax agent for advice specific to your circumstances.

8 Weeks Before EOFY – Start Organising

It’s April. You’ve got roughly eight weeks before June 30. That’s plenty of time if you start now – and not nearly enough if you leave it until the last week. Here’s what to focus on first:

Review last year’s return. Pull up your 2024-25 tax return and go through the deductions you claimed. This is the quickest way to spot categories you might be forgetting this year. Did you claim professional development last year but haven’t logged any courses this year? Did you claim vehicle expenses but haven’t kept a logbook? Use last year’s return as your baseline checklist.

Start gathering records. Don’t wait until July to hunt down receipts and invoices. Begin consolidating everything now – bank statements, digital receipts from email, physical receipts you haven’t scanned yet, and any invoices you’ve issued. The earlier you start, the easier it is to fill gaps.

Check your superannuation contributions. If you’re making voluntary super contributions, the deadline for them to count in the 2025-26 financial year is June 30. The concessional contributions cap for 2025-26 is $30,000 (including any employer contributions if you also have PAYG work). Contributions received by your super fund after June 30 count toward the next financial year, so don’t leave this to the last day – processing times vary.

Book your accountant early. If you use a tax agent, book your appointment now. Accountants get slammed from July onward. An early booking means you get time and attention, not a rushed session squeezed in between fifty other clients.

Gather All Income Records

Your tax return requires you to report all income you’ve earned during the financial year, not just your main freelance work. Make sure you have records for:

• Invoices issued – a complete list of every invoice you sent to clients during 2025-26, whether or not it’s been paid. If you report on a cash basis, you’ll need to know which invoices were actually paid before June 30.
• Payment records – bank statements showing payments received. Reconcile these against your invoices to catch any discrepancies.
• Platform income statements – if you earn through platforms like Uber, Airtasker, Upwork, or Fiverr, download your annual income summary from each platform. These are typically available in July, but check now whether you can access year-to-date figures.
• Investment income – interest from savings accounts, dividends from shares, rental income, or capital gains from selling assets. Your bank and brokerage will issue statements, but make a note of what to expect.
• PAYG summaries – if you also have employment income or receive payments where tax has been withheld, you’ll receive income statements (formerly group certificates) from each payer. These are usually available via myGov from mid-July.
• Government payments – any JobSeeker, Parenting Payment, or other Centrelink payments are taxable income and will appear in your ATO pre-fill.

The ATO’s data-matching programme covers bank interest, dividends, cryptocurrency transactions, ride-sharing income, and more. Don’t assume you can skip reporting something – they almost certainly already know about it.

Review and Categorise Every Expense

Now comes the part that saves you money: making sure every legitimate business expense is captured and correctly categorised.

• Go through your bank and card statements for the entire financial year. Highlight every transaction that was a business expense. Look for recurring subscriptions you might have forgotten – software, cloud storage, domain renewals, professional memberships.
• Match receipts to transactions. For every business expense, you should have a receipt or invoice. If you’ve been scanning receipts throughout the year, this is a quick reconciliation exercise. If you haven’t, now is the time to hunt down missing receipts – check your email for digital receipts, and contact suppliers for duplicates where needed.
• Categorise consistently. Use the same categories you’ve been using all year (or the categories your accountant expects). Inconsistent categorisation creates extra work at lodgement time and can lead to missed deductions.
• Flag anything unusual. Large or one-off expenses, overseas purchases, or anything you’re unsure about should be flagged for your accountant to review.

If you want a deeper look at which deductions you might be overlooking, our 5 tax deduction tips for freelancers guide covers the most commonly missed claims.

Check for Deductions You Might Have Missed

Even organised freelancers miss deductions. Go through this list and check whether any apply to you this financial year:

• Home office – if you worked from home at all, you can claim using the fixed rate method (67 cents per hour) or the actual cost method. You need records of hours worked from home. See our home office deduction guide for the full breakdown.
• Phone and internet – the work-related portion of your mobile plan and home internet. A 12-month average based on one representative month’s usage is sufficient.
• Professional memberships – industry associations, unions, or professional bodies. Annual fees are deductible if membership relates to your income-earning activities.
• Insurance premiums – professional indemnity, public liability, and income protection insurance (if the policy covers loss of income). Note that life insurance premiums are generally not deductible.
• Bank and account fees – fees on your business bank account, merchant transaction fees (Stripe, Square, PayPal), and accounting software subscriptions.
• Depreciation on equipment – if you bought a laptop, monitor, camera, or other equipment costing more than $300, you’ll need to depreciate it over its effective life. Items costing $300 or less can be claimed as an immediate deduction. Under the instant asset write-off (currently $20,000 for small businesses), eligible assets can be fully deducted in the year of purchase.
• Travel between work locations – travel between your home office and a client site, or between two different clients, is deductible. Your daily commute to a regular workplace is not.
• Stationery and office consumables – printer paper, ink cartridges, pens, notebooks, and other supplies. Small individually but they add up over a year.

Prepay Expenses Before June 30

One legitimate strategy for maximising deductions in the current financial year is prepaying certain expenses before June 30. This brings the deduction forward into 2025-26 rather than pushing it into 2026-27. Common expenses you might prepay:

• Insurance premiums – if your professional indemnity or public liability policy is due for renewal in July or August, pay it before June 30 instead.
• Annual subscriptions – software tools, cloud storage, project management apps, or design tools with annual billing. Switch from monthly to annual and pay before EOFY.
• Professional memberships – if your industry association dues are coming up, pay early.
• Stationery and office supplies – stock up on supplies you’ll genuinely use. Don’t buy things you don’t need just for the deduction – the ATO takes a dim view of that.

Important: prepaid expenses must be for genuine business purposes. You can’t prepay two years of rent or buy $5,000 worth of stationery you’ll never use. The ATO’s prepayment rules require that the prepayment covers a period of 12 months or less and ends before June 30 of the following year.

Prepare Your Export for Your Accountant

Your accountant doesn’t want a shoebox. They want a clean, categorised summary that they can work with efficiently. Here’s what to prepare:

• An organised expense report by category. Totals for each deduction category – home office, travel, vehicle, professional development, and so on. If your receipt scanner exports by category, this is already done.
• An income summary. Total business income received during the financial year, ideally reconciled against your bank statements.
• Digital copies of all receipts. The ATO accepts digital records, and your accountant will appreciate having them available rather than sifting through paper. Organised by category or date is ideal.
• A list of questions or unusual items. Did you buy a car? Sell equipment? Start a new income stream? Move house and change your home office setup? Flag anything out of the ordinary so your accountant can handle it correctly.
• Asset and depreciation schedule. If you’ve purchased equipment that needs to be depreciated, list each item with the purchase date, cost, and effective life.

The ATO’s lodgement dates page has the full timeline for when returns are due. If you lodge through a tax agent, you generally have until the following March, but getting your information to your accountant early means a faster turnaround.

Make EOFY Painless with Taxr

If you’ve been scanning receipts with Taxr throughout the year, EOFY preparation is genuinely simple. Your expenses are already categorised, your receipts are stored digitally, and exporting a clean report is one tap. Hand it to your accountant and you’re done.

If you haven’t been scanning all year, it’s not too late. Start now – gather your remaining receipts from the past few months, scan them into Taxr, review the AI-suggested categories, and export everything before your accountant appointment. Even a partial year of organised records is dramatically better than nothing.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the end of the financial year in Australia?

The Australian financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. EOFY 2025-26 falls on Tuesday, 30 June 2026. All income and deductions for the financial year must occur on or before this date.

When is the tax return due for freelancers in Australia?

If you lodge your own return through myTax, the deadline is 31 October 2026. If you lodge through a registered tax agent, you generally have until 15 May 2027, provided you’re registered with your agent before 31 October.

What is the concessional super contribution cap for 2025-26?

The concessional (before-tax) super contribution cap for the 2025-26 financial year is $30,000. This includes employer contributions, salary sacrifice amounts, and personal deductible contributions. Contributions must be received by your super fund before 30 June to count in the current financial year.

Can I prepay expenses before EOFY to increase deductions?

Yes, you can legitimately prepay certain business expenses before 30 June to bring deductions forward into the current financial year. Common prepayments include insurance premiums, annual software subscriptions, and professional membership fees. The ATO requires that prepayments cover a period of 12 months or less and are for genuine business purposes.

Get Ready for June 30

The best EOFY experience is one you barely notice because you’ve been organised all year. Taxr’s AI-powered receipt scanning, automatic categorisation, and one-tap exports are designed to make that a reality. Stop dreading tax time. Download Taxr and start your EOFY preparation today.