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SMSFs And The In-House Asset Rules Explained
A not-uncommon conundrum for many SMSF trustees is what to do when the fund is found to have breached the in-house asset rules. There are also some common misconceptions about these regulations that keep resurfacing. WHAT DOES THE ATO SAY IN RELATION TO THE IN-HOUSE ASSET RULES? Recent ATO statistics on the SMSF sector show […]
FBT And Cars: A Perennial Head-Scratcher
The provision of cars by employers to employees remains an issue that continues to create confusion for some business taxpayers. A not-uncommon situation is where the employer fails to identify that a car fringe benefit has been provided. This is typically found in family companies or trusts where a car bought by the business is […]
Share Dividend Income and Franking Credits
Mum and dad investors in receipt of dividends from their share portfolio often benefit from investing in blue chip shares because they usually have franking credits attached. As a general rule, an Australian resident shareholder is assessed for tax on dividends received plus any franking credits attached to those dividends. The shareholder is assessed on […]
Can Salary Sacrifice Work For You?
Salary sacrifice (or salary packaging) is where you agree to take part of your wage as a benefit of some kind. This to be equal in value to the salary it is exchanged for. The upside is you doing this is that your income tax is then based only on the reduced amount of salary […]
Tax and the Sharing Economy
The concept of a “sharing economy” has been around for long enough now to have had a very real impact on how we transact with each other. What is the sharing economy? Think Airbnb … think Uber. By now, most people will have realised that the “sharing” part of the concept does not refer to […]
Is the Peer-to-Peer Lending Investment Option Right for Your SMSF?
One investment option that has surfaced relatively recently, and that SMSF trustees may consider as a part of their strategy to grow their fund, is investing through peer-to-peer lending. Peer-to-peer lending involves an investor – a trustee of the SMSF in this example – providing funds to an online lending platform. This platform, which must have an […]
What’s New For Taxpayers
Before you complete your tax return for 2015, there are some changes you should be aware of in case they affect you. Mature age worker tax offset You can no longer claim the Mature age worker tax offset (MAWTO) in your tax return. Previously, to be eligible for the offset you needed to be an […]
Travel between home and work and between workplaces
While trips between home and work are generally considered private travel, you can claim deductions in some circumstances, as well as for some travel between two workplaces. If your travel was partly private and partly for work, you can only claim for the part related to your work. What you can claim You can […]
Gifts and donations
You can only claim a tax deduction for gifts or donations to organisations that have the status of deductible gift recipients (DGRs). Deductions for gifts are claimed by the person that makes the gift (the donor). For you to claim a tax deduction for a gift, it must meet four conditions: The gift […]
Capital gains tax checklist
The following questions will help you to identify possible capital gains tax (CGT) obligations. If you answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions, CGT may apply. Some questions are intended to highlight the possibility of a capital gain or loss arising in the current year, others to alert you to the possibility of a […]
Tax on Super Contributions
The tax you pay on your super contributions generally depends on whether the contributions were made before or after you paid income tax, you exceed the super contributions cap or you are a very high-income earner. Before-tax super contributions The super contributions you make before tax (concessional) are taxed at 15%. Types of before-tax contributions […]
Zone Tax Offset – exclude ‘fly-in-fly-out’
In the 2015–16 Federal Budget, the government announced that it will exclude ‘fly-in-fly-out’ and ‘drive-in-drive-out’ (FIFO) workers from the Zone Tax Offset where their normal residence is not within a ‘zone’. Currently, to be eligible for the Zone Tax Offset, a taxpayer must reside or work in a specified remote area for more than 183 […]