Accounting and Finance, Business Tips

ATO’s E-Tax Issue Printing or Saving Tax Returns.

Its that time of year again for preparing tax returns. Many of us will be using the ATO’s E-Tax software to lodge our 2013 tax return online, as a fast and effective way to prepare, lodge and receive our tax refund into our bank account (usually around 10 working days). But there is a problem with printing or saving a copy of your  tax return with some computers and printers ie Windows and Hewlett Packard. Here is a quick step through on how to get around this problem.

1. In E Tax on the left hand side select the “Printing” screen.

2. Change your printer to “Microsoft XPS Document Writer”. Then press the “Preview or print” button.

3. This will process to preview your tax return. In the menu bar the Selected Printer will be Microsoft XPS Document Writer. Press the “Print” button beside this.

4. A “Save Print Output As” window will display. Select where you want to save the document to. I suggest saving it to where your Tax records are on your computer for easy access.

5. Still in this window give your Tax  Return a file name you can easily identify as your name and the year, such as “FOLEY Damien 2013 ITR”.

6. Still in this window, the “Save as type” should be “OpenXPS Document (*.oxps)”. Press Save.

7. You will now need to download a XPS to PDF  converter. You can Google for different converters but I downloaded a free version of NovaPDF from http://www.novapdf.com/download.html. Once downloaded close the XPS to PDF Converter.

8. Go to where you just saved your Tax Return as the XPS file. Open the file and select the print icon or similar (this is in the top right side). A Print window will open. Choose the PDF Creator you just downloaded and press print.

9. A window will open allowing you to save the file as a PDF. Choose where you want to save the file to. Again, I suggest you save it to where you have saved your other tax return information with an identifiable name. Once the save destination is selected press OK.

10. The file now saved as a PDF will open. From the menu select File/print. Select the printer you are wanting to print a hard copy from.

You have successfully saved your tax return as a PDF and you are able to print it from your printer.