Personal Tax Returns - Aston Accountants

Shared economy – things you need to know

If you have a spare room, or some spare time, your friends may have suggested you to grab some cash by hosting your room on Airbnb or becoming an Uber driver.

You thought the idea of being able to generate extra cash without being tied up in an office 9-5, or having some flexibility on deciding when to work sounds cool, and (after a few drinks) your friends suggested that you do not need to report that as income, for whatever reasons.

Sounds too good to be true? Well, it sure is.

The ATO are focusing their attention on the “sharing economy” – the popular ones are Airbnb, Stayz, Uber and Taxify. Below are a few things to consider before starting your shared economy business.

Need help with your tax return?

For those who are attempting to lodge their own 2018 tax returns this year, your due date to lodge tax return is 31 October 2018, this is only a week away!!!

Frustrated about having to lodge it in a week?

Unsure what information you should include in your tax return, or where to include them?

Want to know more about how to maximise your tax deduction and save on tax?

Too busy to be lodging a tax return when you’d rather be spending time on something you’d enjoy – like picnic with family?

We are here to help.

If you engage us to be your tax agent by 31 October 2018, you may be entitled to have additional time to lodge your 2018 income tax return (of up to May 2019).

We promise we will be gentle, and the process won’t hurt 🙂

Come and have a chat with us, or email us to start the conversation.

in News / Personal Tax Returns / Running A Business by Emily Yip

ATO eye on ‘standard’ deductions

The ATO have recently issued warnings of increased audit activity such as motor vehicle claim for 5,000kms, work-related expenses up to $300 and laundry expenses of $150. These items are claims you can make where you do not have to have kept actual receipts for every expense, however the ATO is stressing that this does not make them “standard deductions” that everyone can claim automatically.

The ATO are not saying that you cannot claim these in any circumstances, but they are saying that they can only be claimed where you have actually incurred the expense and have made a reasonable calculation of the amount you are claiming.

Motor vehicle expenses

For motor vehicle expenses you need to be able to show how you calculated the number of kilometres you travel for work and have you remembered that you cannot claim travel between home and work unless you need to carry bulky tools.

Laundry

For laundry expenses the ATO allow up to $150 claim without substantiation. However, you need to be able to show that you need to wash your registered uniform or protective clothing using the ATO’s estimate of $1.00 per full load and $0.50 per part load. So to claim the full $150, you will need to be able to justify that you wash your uniform 150 times per year.

Work-related expenses

For work-related expenses you need to be able to explain what sort of expenses they were and how they add up to the amount you are claiming. If you are claiming for a home office as part of your work-related expenses, you need to have a dedicated office space and a reasonable estimate of the number of hours that you work from home.

The ATO are concerned that a large number of taxpayers are using Motor Vehicle, Work-related expenses and Laundry as “standard” deductions when they do not actually need to incur the cost for their work.

If you have these type of deductions we will contact you prior to finalising your return to make sure you are comfortable that you could provide further information if your tax return is reviewed by the ATO.

The ATO have sent out many media releases about this in the past few weeks, so you may have already been alerted to their increased audit activity from items in the news. Here is a link to one of ATO’s media releases about the dangers of claiming unsubstantiated deductions.

There is a more comprehensive summary of the ATO’s crackdown here.

in News / Personal Tax Returns / Rental Properties by Emily Yip

Fake tax agent scam alert

Yet another ATO scam we are being warned about by the ATO. This time the ATO are reporting an impersonation scam where people are contacted by someone from the ATO demanding payment of a ‘debt’.

In these scams, the person pretending to be from the ATO says they have dialled the victim’s tax agent into a three-way teleconference; however, it isn’t the victim’s tax agent, but instead it is someone pretending to be from the agent’s practice. The person then instructed the victim to pay the ‘debt’ on that day, and via bitcoin.

The ATO reports that during July and August it received more than 7000 scam reports to its dedicated phone line, with close to $190,000 being paid to scammers, and more than 1600 people handing over their personal or financial information.

The ATO will issue payment demand notices for outstanding debts so be wary of any such phone calls. The ATO will never ask you to pay your debts via bitcoin or gift cards that’s for sure!

If you receive suspicious calls please let us know as soon as possible so we can report them to the ATO.

Click here to access previous scams the ATO has identified.

in News / Personal Tax Returns / Running A Business by Emily Yip

How to make your end-of-year financial statements preparation a breeze

Now that we are in August (time flies!) and well into the 2019 financial year, many of you are probably busy preparing your file to send to us for review. Year-end reviews can sometimes be a daunting experience as you never know what the result will be, or what more documents you need to bring in to us… So is there anything you can do to make both of our lives easier? Definitely!