In a fortnight it will be 1st July… a TAX-ing time, that runs from July to October each year.

Most people need to lodge a tax return by 31st October, unless you want to avail our services so you can lodge your tax return later than usual…

If you’ve been working, running a business, or receiving Centrelink payments (or other government payments), you need to lodge a tax return.

If you are unsure if you need to lodge a tax return, phone the Australian Taxation Office helpline on 13 28 65; or Contact-us.

A tax return tells the ATO how much money you earned and how much tax you paid during the financial year (July 1 to June 30). And if you’ve paid too much tax, lodging a tax return is the way you receive a refund.

Small Business

Starting a new business can be exciting but there are expenses associated with setting it up.

The good news from the ATO is that you are now entitled to claim certain deductions this year instead of having to spread the deductions over five years. This applies to the following costs you may have had when setting up your business:

  • Professional, legal and accounting advice.
  • Australian government fees and charges.

Other concessions for small businesses include:

  • Instant write-off for each asset costing less than $20,000.
  • A tax discount of 5% (up to $1000) for unincorporated small businesses.
  • A 1.5% cut to the small business company tax rate.
  • Accelerated depreciation for primary producers regardless of turnover.

Individuals

If you worked during the year, you should receive a payment summary from your employer (s). Make sure you receive all payment summaries by giving all your employers your postal or email address. Every employer you work for must give you a payment summary by July 14.

You need this information to help you do your tax return.

Now is the time to start organising things and making last-minute tax-deductible purchases. Electronic items, books and magazines, tools and equipment are among things to consider this month, and remember that anything costing under $300 can be deducted instantly in full.

You can claim everything (work-related expenses including car expenses, clothing, travel, internet and phone, home-office expenses and self-education) you are entitled to, though these will receive extra attention this year as the Australian Taxation Office targets employees making suspicious claims. For the first time, the ATO will be checking people’s deductions in real time as they complete their online tax returns, and warning taxpayers if they seem unusually high.

There are 3 Golden Rules if you claim a deduction you need-

  1. make sure you spent the money yourself and were not reimbursed.
  2. make sure it’s related to your job; and
  3. you need a record to prove it.

There are plenty of ATO guides available to help people deal with the confusion of claiming work-related deductions, including several occupation-specific guides at ato.gov.au.

Additionally, the ATO wants taxpayers to use its newly launched myDeductions online tool/ app for logging receipts when doing your tax returns. You can use the myDeductions tool to:

  • capture and classify work-related expenses, gifts and donations or the cost of managing your tax affairs
  • store photographs of receipts
  • record car trips – now you now have a choice of three tracking methods to record your car trips:
    • GPS
    • Point to Point
    • Odometer.

Clarification – myDeductions is for individuals claiming work-related expenses as an employee. It is not for small business owners, including sole traders.

Whether you lodge your own return or use our services, you can use the myDeductions tool to keep your deductions records. This year at tax time, you can upload the completed deductions to the ATO and we will pre-fill your individual income tax return. You can also share your deductions data via email.

If your claims are substantially higher than others in similar occupations, earning similar amounts of income, a message will appear asking you to check them at the time of submission with ATO. The ATO will also take a closer look at any unusual deductions and contact employers to validate these claims.

In some cases, the ATO might even tell you before you lodge that you’ll be audited if you continue to file the claim.

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