reshizzle

here's what I do to guarantee a tax return every year.

Tell your HR people to change the amount of tax you pay - tell them you have a HECS debt, or to count this job as a second job. You'll pay more tax every week (so you might be losing money from your take home pay) but every year you'll get a big fat refund cheque.

If you can afford 20-50 bucks/pay to go to tax then you'll learn to live without it every week, and when you do your return, things like the medicare levy or extra taxes will basically vanish. Think of it as enforced savings where you don't get any interest - not like banks pay much anyway. Worse case scenario, you pay enough extra tax during the year to not get slugged with a tax bill at the end of the year.

best case scenario, you end up with a nice lump sum to go on holidays etc