Latest News
Have You Declared ALL Your Business Income?
When it comes to reporting your business income, make sure you are including all your income. If you are lodging through a tax agent, such as Taxwise, make sure you tell us about all your income. It’s crucial to get this right, as you can only claim a deduction for expenses that are related to […]
Disclosure Of Business Tax Debts – Declaration Made
| | | Following the enactment of legislation in late 2019, the ATO can disclose certain business tax debt information to external credit reporting bureaus. This information will primarily be used when issuing external creditworthiness reports in relation to relevant businesses, effectively treating tax debts in a similar manner to other business debts. More […]
New Gig Economy Reporting
Additionally, the MYEFO also announced the Government’s intention to implement a new third party reporting regime for the sharing economy. This will apply to businesses who operate via online platforms within the ‘sharing’ or ‘gig’ economy (e.g., Uber and Airbnb). It is proposed to be introduced in two stages, starting from 1 July 2022 (for […]
Proposed New Record-Keeping Course
One new tax-related measure of note in the MYEFO was the announcement the ATO would be provided with a new discretion to direct taxpayers (found to be lacking in their substantiation efforts under audit) to undertake an approved record-keeping course, instead of applying financial penalties. This is yet another measure designed to tackle the ‘black’ […]
2019-20 Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook
Treasury has released its Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (‘MYEFO’) for 2019/20 forecasting a surplus of approximately $5 billion.
The ATO’s Bushfire Crisis Response
In response to the devastating bushfires across large parts of Australia, the ATO has been keen to advise those impacted that it understands peoples priority is their family and community. If taxpayers live in one of the identified impacted postcodes, the ATO will automatically defer any lodgments or payments, meaning that income tax, activity statement, […]
Work-related expense claims rejected by Administrative Review Tribunal (‘ART’)
The Administrative Review Tribunal (‘ART’) recently disallowed a taxpayer’s claims for many different types of work-related expenses. The taxpayer was employed full-time as an engineer, working from home two days a week. For the 2023 income year, he claimed deductions totalling over $61,000, in relation to (among other things) car expenses, travel expenses, clothing expenses, […]
Check GST credit claims before lodging BASs
Taxpayers who are registered for GST can get GST credit claims (or ‘input tax credits’) for the GST included in the price of goods and services they buy for their business. However, if they buy something for both business and private use, they need to apportion their GST credit to only claim the business use. […]
Government payments programs
The ATO is reminding taxpayers that receive government payments for delivering services under a Commonwealth program, such as healthcare, disability support or child care, that they have an obligation to: keep accurate records; and report any such income they receive in their tax return. The ATO recently advised that it would be contacting taxpayers and […]
Contractors omitting income
Through data matching, the ATO is seeing some contractors incorrectly reporting or contractors omitting income. Contractors need to report all their income in their tax return, including payments made by businesses for their contracting work. Note that, as part of the taxable payments reporting system (‘TPRS’), certain businesses must lodge a ‘Taxable payments annual report’ […]
Businesses using cash to dodge obligations
The ATO is ‘cracking down’ on businesses that use cash to dodge obligations on their tax, employer and business. Businesses that do this may: – fail to report all sales transactions and fail to issue receipts; – avoid paying GST, income tax, PAYG withholding, super guarantee, insurance and work cover protection; – report their income […]
$20,000 instant asset write-off extended
Editor: The Government recently passed legislation to extend the $20,000 instant asset write-off for small businesses by 12 months to 30 June 2026. Taxpayers should note that if their business has an aggregated annual turnover of less than $10 million, they may be able touse the instant asset write-off (‘IAWO’) to immediately deduct the business […]