Latest News
Hybrid vehicles and FBT changes
Employers that provide plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (‘PHEVs’) to employees (or associates) for personal use should remember the following. Home-charging expenses — new shortcut method The ATO has updated its guidelines to include a new method to make it easier to calculate PHEV electricity costs when a vehicle is charged at an employee’s home. To […]
When a hobby becomes a business
Taxpayers may not think they are running a business from their hobby or ‘side hustle’ activities. However, if they start to earn money from doing these activities regularly, they may be carrying on a business without realising it. Generally, carrying on a business involves ongoing and repeated activities with the intention of making a profit. […]
Know when a new logbook is required
Editor: Keeping a car logbook may be required to accurately calculate the business-use percentage of vehicle expenses (e.g., fuel, registration, insurance and depreciation) for tax deductions. Taxpayers can keep the same logbook for their car for five years, but there are circumstances where they may need a new one during that period. Relying on a […]
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 […]
ATO Loses Case on Jobkeeper And Backdated ABNs
| | | On 24 March 2021, the Full Federal Court handed down its decision in a case concerned with the requirement that an entity claiming JobKeeper must have had an ABN on 12 March 2020, or a later time allowed by the ATO. The Registrar of the Australian Business Register had reactivated the […]
First Criminal Conviction for Jobkeeper Fraud
| | | A person claiming to be a sole trader was convicted of three counts of making a false and misleading statement to the Commissioner of Taxation, in order to receive $6,000 in JobKeeper payments to which he was not entitled, as he was not operating a genuine business and he had already […]
New Succession Planning Guide for Family Businesses
| | | The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, in conjunction with Family Business Australia, has released a new online guide to succession planning — the “Introductory Guide to Family Business Succession Planning” — which provides a step-by-step guide to passing the family business on to the next generation. A recent report revealed […]
ATO’s Taxable Payments Reporting System Update
| | | The ATO has confirmed that more than 60,000 businesses have not yet complied with lodgement requirements under the taxable payments reporting system (‘TPRS’) for 2019/20. The TPRS is a black economy measure designed to assist the ATO to identify contractors who don’t report or under-report their income. The ATO estimates that […]
Jobkeeper Comes to an End
| | | The ATO has advised that the final JobKeeper payment will be processed in April 2021. Enrolled businesses do not have to do anything when the program closes, although they will need to complete their final March monthly business declaration by 14 April 2021. Also, once a business is no longer claiming […]
FBT Rates and Thresholds for the 2021/22 FBT Year
| | | The ATO has updated its webpage containing the fringe benefits tax (‘FBT’) rates and thresholds for the 2017/18 to 2021/22 FBT years. Two amounts that were not previously announced for the 2021/22 FBT year are: the FBT record keeping exemption is $8,923 (up from $8,853 for the 2020/21 FBT year); and […]