By: Steve Burnham It is generally assumed that there is a degree of flexibility within the tax law over particular work travel claims that arise where the nature of the employment is deemed to be itinerant. If you do itinerant work (or have shifting places of work) you can claim the cost for driving between workplaces […]
By: Steve Burnham ATO takes aim at serious SMSF non-compliance. Speaking at national superannuation conference in late August, the ATO’s superannuation assistant commissioner Kasey Macfarlane highlighted a number of issues that the ATO will be taking a keen interest in over the coming year. Chief among these concerns, Macfarlane said, was the fact of serious non-compliance […]
By: Anthony Keane EXORBITANT super fund fees could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement so it’s wise to make sure you’re not paying more than you should. Superannuation specialists say fees are more transparent than ever with easy checks available online and on annual fund statements — which should arrive by the end […]
By: Max Newnham Are there any tax advantages for buying either new or used for my business? When a business is registered for GST it can claim a credit for GST input tax included on anything it pays relating to the business, but it also must pay to the ATO one eleventh of all of its […]
By: Steve Burnham The Federal Government has responded to pressure and dropped its plan to introduce a 32.5% tax on backpacker workers. Instead, working holidaymakers will be taxed at a lower rate of 19%, starting January 1, 2017. They will still be charged from the first dollar earned. Under the original $540 million proposal in the […]
By: Steve Burnham The ATO has advised that as of October 28 this year, all employers will be required to be SuperStream compliant. The previous deadline of June 30 was extended, as by mid-June the ATO discovered that many (if not most) small businesses had trouble meeting that deadline. The end of October was picked, but […]
By: Jackson Stiles Score! The tax man has given thousands of Australians a windfall in the form of a refund on their tax bill. But experts have urged us to spend this money wisely, given precarious economic conditions. As of September 6, the Tax Office had received 5.5 million returns and issued 4.5 million refunds for the […]
By: Max Newnham What happens when your business replies on goods or services from overseas? Thankfully most small business owners only have to deal with the Australian taxation system. When a business manufactures in or provides services from Australia that are used overseas, the business is only subject to the Australian taxation system. When the goods are […]
By: Steve Burnham Even though tax reform is more than likely on hiatus for the next three years, it is worthwhile to re:visit that Tax & Super Australia made a submission to the government last year for the “Re:think” tax discussion paper. One aspect of our submission dealt in part with work-related expense deductions, and how […]
By: Steve Burnham The contentious area of contribution caps is something that many SMSF trustees grapple with, but a new report may re-cast this as an overdone concern, especially regarding the eventual level of retirement savings that members end up with. A related factor (about which many may have already pondered) is how much of one’s […]
