News

The ATO has released new guidance to help clarify the tax treatment of costs and allowances incurred when an employee travels – or spends time living away from home – for work. Certain conditions need to be met to ensure an allowance can be considered a travel allowance: None of the individual absences from the…

To save you having to laboriously search for the right tax rate or relevant threshold, the essential information is right here in one place. This guide includes tax rates, including individual minor and non-resident rates, corporate rates, offset limits and benchmarks, rebate levels, allowances, and essential super as well as FBT rates and thresholds (including current…

We know you want to get your tax right, so it may help you this tax time to know how to avoid making what the ATO has found are the most common tax mistakes. To do this make sure you have: declared all income, including cash and online sales, dividends, interest, capital gains or one-off…

The ATO allows certain taxpayers to claim a deduction for the cost of buying and cleaning occupation-specific clothing, items of protective wear and for certain unique, and usually distinctive, uniforms. To claim a deduction it is generally expected that you will be able to provide evidence that you purchased the clothing concerned, and will have…

While most people look forward to receiving a tax refund once their return is processed by the ATO, it is also not unheard of to receive a tax bill on occasion. Most people who earn income as employees have tax payments made on their behalf throughout the year through pay-as-you-go (PAYG) withholding to help them…

When you’re faced with a complex or high-risk question in tax or super, briefing a barrister can provide you with the expertise and perspective to help you move towards a solution with confidence. Barristers (who are also referred to as “counsel”) are independent specialists in court work and legal advice. There are specialist barristers across…

The financial year is almost over, but there are still effective strategies you may be able to put in place. The aim is to make sure you pay no more tax than you have to for the 2020-21 year and maximise any refunds you may be entitled to. This is still the case, if not more…

It is possible to receive amounts that are not expected by the ATO to be included as income in your tax return. However some of these amounts may be used in other calculations, and may therefore need to be included elsewhere in your tax return. The ATO classifies the amounts that it doesn’t count as…

Government agencies regularly access data contained in the ABN registration, and where this is not up-to-date the taxpayer may be missing out on stimulus measures, grants, and other government support. This became painfully evident during the 2019-20 bushfires, and is now re-surfacing during COVID-19 when it was found that a concerning amount of ABN data…

The special circumstances that coronavirus has thrown our way looks like having some very practical outcomes on certain areas of fringe benefits tax. One of the most prevalent and well-established category of fringe benefits centres on the provision and use of vehicles. The parking of a car, for instance, is a benefit that comes with…