2018/19 Year-end Checklist for Business Many of our business clients like to review their tax position at the end of the income year and evaluate any year-end strategies that may be available to legitimately reduce their tax. Traditionally, year-end tax [...]
2018/19 Individual Tax Return Checklist Tax saving strategies prior to 1 July 2019 A good strategy to reduce tax payable is normally to accelerate any income tax deductions into the current income year, which will reduce overall taxable income in [...]
Single Touch Payroll Update Employers with 19 or fewer employees are required to start reporting through Single Touch Payroll (‘STP’) from 1 July 2019. The ATO will be working with employers to support them as they transition to STP, including [...]
Employees and payment summaries The ATO has also reminded employees that how they get their end of financial year information from their employer, showing their earnings for the year, depends on how their employer reports their income, tax and super [...]
FBT issues on the ATO's radar The ATO has updated its list of 'What attracts our attention', with six items that specifically relate to fringe benefits tax ('FBT'), as follows: Failing to report motor vehicle fringe benefits, incorrectly applying exemptions [...]
Latest ATO benchmarks released The ATO has released updated benchmark data drawn from over 1.5 million small businesses around the country to "help small businesses across the country . . . gauge the strength of their business and keep an [...]
Tax scammer alert The ATO has again warned taxpayers to be alert for scammers impersonating the ATO, as it appears they have changed tactics in 2019. Specifically, the ATO is seeing the emergence of a new tactic where: “scammers are [...]
Claims for home office expenses increased The ATO has updated the hourly rate taxpayers can use to determine deductions for home office expenses from 45 cents to 52 cents per hour for individual taxpayers, effective 1 July 2018 (i.e., from [...]
Divsion 293 Assessments The ATO has been issuing ‘Additional tax on concessional contributions (Division 293) assessments’ with respect to liabilities relating to the 2018 income year. Division 293 imposes an additional 15% tax on certain concessional (i.e., taxable) superannuation contributions. [...]
Proposed expansion of STP to smaller employers Single Touch Payroll (‘STP’) commenced on 1 July 2018 for approximately 73,000 employers who have 20 or more employees. There is currently legislation before Parliament to expand STP to all employers from 1 [...]