Tax Advice

The Superannuation Guarantee Amnesty legislation has failed to pass the Senate into law. With Parliament not scheduled to sit again until February 2019 and the Federal Opposition opposed to the Amnesty, the fate of the legislation is still very much up in the air.

Under the current law, if you've missed a payment or haven’t paid an employees' super on time, you are required to lodge an SG cha

Keen to get into the property market as an investor? Before you start looking, you need to understand that what you’re looking for in a house, that you would occupy, might be different to an investment property.

When you’re hunting for an investment property, rather than looking for features specific to your needs; like commute times or how much you like the kitchen, you’re goin

Remote working has become more and more common as developments in technology have allowed us to communicate and collaborate no matter where we are. In fact, most of us are already logging on from home or holiday already. In May 2018, Swiss serviced office provider IWG released a study that found that 70% of professionals work remotely at least once a week.

Sometimes called ‘telecommuting&rs

When you’re employed, your employer makes compulsory contributions to your superannuation. When you work for yourself as a sole trader, or you’re in a partnership, making super payments isn’t mandatory. But, it’s still an important thing to consider.

Retirement savings contributions are there to set you up in retirement. Generally, investing money into super will give you

When meeting with accountant or sending us in your tax information here are some questions for you to consider when declaring income.

Did you:

• receive any cash payments?
• earn income through coupons, vouchers or gift cards?
• receive income from other activities such as rent from business assets?
• receive bank interest or money from other investments?
• receive directors' fees, dividends or franking cre

Get on top of your record keeping early and be better prepared for lodging your BAS ‒ it can help manage your cash flow and get you your refund faster.

Keep your business on track with these GST and BAS tips:

1. Keep all of the records you use to prepare your BAS. Generally, these records must be kept for five years.
2. Only claim GST credits for business purchases that include GST in the sale price

In the Budget on Tuesday, the Government announced that it would increase the instant asset write-off threshold to $30,000 and extend it to medium sized businesses with annual turnover of less than $50 million.

The amendments mean there will be three tiers in the 2018/2019 financial year:

1. $20,000 threshold for depreciable assets that are acquired and installed ready for use before 29 January 201

The Government’s proposed Superannuation Guarantee (SG) Amnesty will not proceed. To recap, the SG amnesty was to be available for the 12-month period from 24 May 2018 to 23 May 2019. To get the benefits of the Amnesty (set out below) employers must have during this 12-month period voluntarily disclosed any SG underpayments that existed in the past (going as far back to when SG commenced in

If you are lodging your own fringe benefits tax (FBT) return, you need to lodge and pay by the 21st of May. If we are lodging on your behalf, your due date is not until the 25th of June.

Even if you have been paying FBT instalments on your quarterly BAS, we still need to complete and lodge the annual return to assess whether you have paid too much or too little throughout the year.

If you have not

Cryptocurrency owners and traders are required to maintain records in relation to their holdings including records relating to the purchase, sale and transfer of cryptocurrency.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will collect data from cryptocurrency designated service providers, under notice, to identify individuals or businesses who have or may be engaged in buying, selling or transferring cry

If you are already reporting Single Touch Payroll (STP) to the ATO, there is a different process for issuing payment summaries from now on.

Employers must provide payment summaries to employees by 14 July. In the STP reporting system, employers must make a finalisation declaration by this date, in order that the employee’s information will be released in their myGov account and listed as &ls

Continuing its focus in recent years on work-related expenses, this Tax Time the ATO says it will target false clothing and laundry work-related expense claims.

In 2018 alone, more than 6 million people claimed work-related clothing and laundry expenses totalling nearly $1.5 billion.

ATO Assistant Commissioner Karen Foat said while many Australians can claim clothing

Paying tax is something you’re likely to see as a necessary (but not hugely enjoyable) part of running your business. But are you doing enough to plan your own personal tax liabilities?

As a director, you’ll pay your income tax annually on a self-assessment basis. But there are plenty of ways to make this a less costly and onerous task to complete.

Planning ahead when it comes to tax

You can no longer claim deductions for payments to workers if you have not met your pay as you go (PAYG) withholding obligations. This applies to income tax returns lodged for the 2020 income year onwards.

Reminder if PAYG withholding rules require an amount to be withheld, you must:

• withhold the amount from the payment before you pay your worker
• report that amount to the ATO

You will not lose y

Prepare now for your quarterly superannuation guarantee (SG) contribution lodgement and payment.

Things to review before finalising the quarterly superannuation lodgement:

• Have you allocated all payroll related bank transactions to the correct accounts?
• Have you checked for errors such as duplicate pay runs?
• Have you checked that all payroll categories used this quarter have had super correctly a

ATO auditors have recently completed over 300 audits on rental property claims and “found errors in almost 9 out of 10 tax returns reviewed”. He said the most common errors the ATO is seeing are:  

1. incorrect interest claims for the entire investment loan where it has been refinanced for private purposes
2. incorrect classification of capital works as repairs and maintenance, and
3. tax

Australians have been very altruistic in recent weeks, donating millions of dollars to various organisations to assist those impacted by the bushfires. Unfortunately, there have been stories of scammers setting up bogus websites and donation points. For this reason, it’s important to check the veracity of the organization.  One way of doing so is to search the register on the Australian

With the Australian share market suffering some of its biggest falls since the Global Financial Crisis, investors will no doubt be worried about their own portfolios.  

From a tax perspective, if the price a particular share you hold is currently lower than what you bought it for, this at present is only a ‘paper’ loss.   The loss will only become a real, crystalized CGT loss

Under the new arrangement, taxpayers will be allowed to claim a rate of 80 cents per hour for all their running expenses, rather than needing to calculate costs for specific running expenses.

The requirement to have a dedicated work-from-home area will also be removed, with multiple people in each household allowed to claim the new rate.

The new method will cover the period starting

30 June tax planning generally focuses on three things: 

1. reduce income

2. increase deductions

3. accessing lower tax rates

Before implementing any strategies, it is important to estimate your taxable income and projected tax for the year and consider what you think your income and tax will be next year.

Many tax planning strategies involve pushing income to the following year. Those types

Businesses will be able to access the boosted $150,000 instant asset write-off scheme for a further six months to the end of the year. By way of background, as part of its emergency COVID-19 fiscal package, the government quin­tupled (from $30,000) the value of assets businesses were able to instantly write -off for the ­period of March 12 to June 30, and expanded the eligibility to cover

When claiming for work-related car expenses, many taxpayers miss out on maximising their claim due to inadequate record keeping. But also, failing to maintain a valid car log book can cost taxpayers dearly in an ATO audit. The car log book is an important piece of tax substantiation for those who use their vehicle in the course of performing their duties. There are two main instances where a car l

The Federal budget was announced on Tuesday 6th October after a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said it would focus heavily on job creation in order to pull the country out of the economic crisis it faces. With uncertainty remaining until a vaccine for Covid-19 is available, there will likely be more announcements as circumstances change over time.

Some of the key

Changes to superannuation legislation in July 2020 have adjusted the rules around age limits and the work test, allowing older workers to continue making superannuation contributions.

Super Contributions

Superannuation guarantee contributions made by employers on behalf of employees can be paid into the employee’s super fund, for workers of any age.

For other contributions, (after-tax, pre-t

Christmas is a great time to acknowledge and reward your employees and other associates by celebrating and giving gifts. But don’t get caught out by entertainment rules! Claiming entertainment and gifts as business expenses is not always straight-forward, as there are implications for GST, income tax and fringe benefits tax (FBT).

Is it Entertainment?

Entertainment is generally not a deducti

Now that the COVID-19 recession has largely passed, ATO debt collection action is expected to ramp up as debts hit a record high. Collectable debt owed to the ATO has peaked at $34 billon - the majority of which is owed by small business ($21bn).

The main point in letting an ATO debt accumulate and paying other debts off instead, is that the interest charged by the ATO (General Interest Charge GIC

The Federal Budget 2021-22 has many announcements and proposals aimed at economic recovery and includes investment in jobs, essential services, business incentives and tax cuts.

Budget Highlights for Business

• Temporary full expensing measures extended until 30 June 2023 – eligible businesses can claim an immediate deduction for the total cost of depreciating assets.
• Temporary loss carr

If you have income from investment properties, now is the time to start gathering your records and reviewing your expenses for the 2021 financial year.

Income to Declare

All income earned from each property must be declared. If you have multiple properties, keep the records for each property separate to make the tax return more efficient.

• Rent received, whether paid directly to you or through an

Are you interested in learning more about income splitting and how to minimise tax by apportioning income or profit between associated entities?

Professional services firms frequently use income splitting – for example, medical, legal, financial or IT services firms. It’s a good way of reducing tax within the allowable provisions – so long as it is not stepping over the boundary

The superannuation guarantee statutory rate has remained at 9.5% since July 2014. However, plans have been in place for some years now, to increase the rate to 12% incrementally.

In July 2021, the rate will rise to 10%. From then on, the rate will increase by 0.5% each year until July 2025 when it will reach the legislated 12%.

Prior to the delayed 2020 federal budget, there was discussion about t