Tax returns not lodged, and you need funding

HomeSec does not require tax returns, business activity statements or financial statements to assess a loan. Lending is secured against equity in real property and assessed on the business purpose and the exit, from $20,000 to $5,000,000, generally settling within 24 hours. Outstanding lodgements are one of the most common reasons a business owner cannot use a bank, and they are not part of our assessment.

The problem is rarely the tax. It is the timing.

Businesses fall behind on lodgement for ordinary reasons: an accountant who left mid-year, a bookkeeper who never reconciled, a divorce, an illness, two years that got away. The tax position itself is often fine. What is not fine is that every mainstream credit assessment starts by asking for two years of returns, so the file stops at the first question and nothing else about the business ever gets looked at.

We start somewhere else. The questions are whether there is a business purpose, whether there is enough equity in real property, and whether there is a credible way the loan is repaid. None of those require a lodged return to answer.

What being behind actually costs, while you catch up

• Failure to lodge on time penalties. These accrue at one penalty unit for each period of 28 days, or part of one, that a document remains outstanding, capped at five units. From 1 July 2026 a Commonwealth penalty unit is $364, up from $330 — so the maximum base penalty for a small entity is now $1,820 per document. Medium and large entities are multiples of that.
• Default assessments. Where returns remain outstanding, the Commissioner can issue an assessment estimating your income from prior lodgements, third-party data and industry benchmarks rather than from your figures — with an administrative penalty of 75% of the resulting liability, rising for repeat non-compliance. Displacing one afterwards is harder than lodging would have been: on objection, the onus is on you to prove the assessment is excessive.
• Interest. General interest charge runs on unpaid amounts at 11.43% per annum for the quarter beginning 1 July 2026, compounding daily, and since 1 July 2025 it is no longer deductible.

The order that works is almost always: fund the immediate problem, then let the accountant catch the lodgements up without a deadline sitting on top of them. Trying to do it the other way round is how people lose a settlement or a contract while waiting on a bookkeeper.

What we look at instead

• The property. Residential, commercial, industrial or land, held personally or by a company or trust. To 80% of value on residential security, 70% on commercial.
• The purpose. It must be a business purpose. That is a legal requirement of the way we lend, not a preference.
• The exit. A sale, a refinance, a settlement, a contract payment — something dated and identifiable. This is the part of the assessment that carries the most weight.

Credit history is considered and is never disqualifying on its own. Defaults, judgments and an outstanding ATO balance are all common on files we write.

How much you can borrow

Take the property's value, multiply by 80% for residential security or 70% for commercial, and subtract what is already owing on it. What is left is roughly what is available, between $20,000 and $5,000,000. Several properties can be added together, and the borrower does not have to be the owner — companies, trusts and sole traders — including start-ups, with everyone on title signing. Up to 80% on residential and 70% on commercial. Lower on large acreage, and LVRs may reduce on properties worth less than $800,000.

From the call to the money

What it costs

Priced per file, on the property, the position, the amount and the exit. No rate is published, because a rate with "from" in front of it is the best file's number. How it is priced, and every fee that exists.

Reviewed by Catriona Anderson, General Manager