News

Photo by Sean Pollock on Unsplash The tax rules allow investing taxpayers to claim some deductions related to some of the expenses and costs that are generated when earning interest, receiving dividends or gaining other investment income. Remember, interest from a bank or other financial institution is part of your assessable income for the year.…

Photo by Melissa Walker Horn on Unsplash As most of us know, donations of $2 or more are deductible, and there is flexibility in the rules around donating to emergency relief bodies in that no receipt is required if giving less than $10 (so called “bucket” donations). To be able to claim a tax deduction…

From 1 July 2019, businesses will only be able to claim deductions for payments that are made to workers (employees or contractors) when the employer has complied with the pay- as-you-go (PAYG) withholding and other tax reporting obligations for that payment. If the PAYG withholding rules require a business to withhold an amount from a…

Australians have been taking full advantage of the offerings on the digital marketplace with gusto for years now, but it has only been relatively recently that the rules for goods and services tax (GST) have caught up. With the purchase of digital products such as the streaming or downloading of movies, apps, and e-books and…

A perennial topic regarding tax deductions is claiming expenses for a car. The following notes summarise the most salient points when it comes to claiming a deduction for motor vehicle expenses. Of course every person’s circumstances may be different, but the following covers most of the relevant information. Key points to keep in mind include:…

Being able to make claims for work-related travel expenses is generally an enviable deduction situation, and one that a good many taxpayers would like to achieve — especially given that the status of being deemed an “itinerant” worker brings with it an expectation of a lot of travel kilometres. While itinerant work is generally held…

As the FBT year runs from 1 April to 31 March, the months of October to December mark the “third quarter” of the FBT year, and so, as an early fix before year’s end, here is an overview of the FBT elements that can attract the ATO’s attention. This can be a timely period for…

Not so many years ago, the concept of raising funds via crowdfunding would more likely be seen as a way to fund community-based, local-issue or help your neighbor initiatives. But increasingly these days crowdfunding is viewed as a viable source of seed capital, and is no longer regarded as the shy little sister of venture capitalism.…

There have been cases where people believe the idle talk about being able to coerce a better tax outcome simply by applying for a private ruling from the ATO. But there are some sober facts that you may need to keep in mind if you have thought of it yourself. Any taxpayer can apply for…

Say for example that we have already lodged your 2017-18 tax return and forwarded your notice of assessment to you saying that everything is as discussed, but you then realise that something has been left out of your return, or you accidentally included an extra deduction or doubled one up. There’s no need to panic…