ATO Payment Plan Tracker (Australia)

An ATO payment plan stops the follow-up letters — it does not stop the general interest charge. GIC accrues on every unpaid dollar, every day, until the balance is gone, so two people with the same tax debt and the same instalment can pay very different totals depending on how long the plan runs and whether a lump sum lands early. This tracker makes both numbers visible: the month the debt actually dies, the GIC the plan will cost, and exactly what a one-off lump sum paid today would save.

What it does for you:
– Start Here — 5-minute setup: the amount owed, your instalment and the first instalment date from your ATO payment plan (ATO Online / myGov). The GIC rate is a yellow example cell — the ATO sets it quarterly and compounds it daily, so enter the rate from your own ATO statement; the sheet estimates the GIC monthly.
– Payment Schedule — month by month: GIC accrues on the opening balance, the instalment lands, the closing balance calculates itself, and the final (smaller) instalment stops the schedule at exactly $0.
– Payments & Lump-Sum What-If — log every direct debit (and any miss — a failed debit can see the ATO cancel the plan). Below the log, what-if rows price a lump sum paid TODAY: in the samples, $1,000 extra cuts 3 months and saves about $346 of GIC; $2,000 cuts 6 months and saves about $652.
– Dashboard — months to clear, payoff date, total GIC and the total cost of the debt at a glance, with missed payments counted in the open.
– Expense Log & Monthly Budget — a zero-based budget with an ATO Payment category, so the direct debit is funded before it fires.
– Monthly Summary — 12 months of instalments in one view.
– Sample rows pre-filled ($11,300 owed at an example 11% GIC, $390/month: clear in 34 months, payoff 4 Aug 2029, $1,894.09 of GIC) so every formula works the moment you open it; formula cells are locked (password disclosed in Start Here) and every formula is error-wrapped. A tracking and planning tool, not tax or financial advice.

What’s inside (.xlsx, works in Excel AND Google Sheets): Start Here · Payment Schedule (GIC, month by month) · Payments & Lump-Sum What-If · Expense Log · Monthly Budget (zero-based) · Dashboard · Monthly Summary (12 months).

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