"E-tax has even more new features this year making it easier than ever to lodge your tax return," Mr D'Ascenzo announced, going on to add that:

“People who use e-tax will be able to download more information from a range of government departments and third party organisations directly into their tax return."

“This includes government payments such as pensions and allowances, payment summaries, bank interest, and private health insurance details."

Taxpayers can also download dividend income details from share registries and most listed public corporations, and net medical expenses from Medicare Australia.

“Last year more than 1.9 million people used e-tax, an increase of almost 20% on the previous year."

“We expect to see even more people logging on to e-tax this year to take advantage of these expanded features,” Mr D’Ascenzo continued.

From 1st July 2008, Australian citizens will be able to download e-tax from the Tax Office website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Government and third party information will also be available to download progressively from 1st July.

While the range of information available to download has increased this year, the ATO has reminded individuals to check that they've included all of the relevant information before lodging a return.