{"id":1840,"date":"2018-05-08T17:20:16","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T07:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/?p=1840"},"modified":"2018-05-08T12:23:22","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T02:23:22","slug":"clients-car-expenses-claims-get-blowtorch-treatment-tax-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/clients-car-expenses-claims-get-blowtorch-treatment-tax-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Clients\u2019 Car Expenses Claims to Get the Blowtorch Treatment This Tax Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Steve Burnham<\/strong><\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>Assistant Commissioner Kath Anderson has announced that the ATO is particularly concerned about taxpayers either making mistakes or deliberately lodging false claims in relation to work-related car expenses over tax time 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year around 3.5\u00a0million people made a work-related car expense claims, and together they totalled about $8.8\u00a0billion,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cNow that\u2019s a lot of money \u2014 and Australians expect us to make sure that people are doing the right thing and not over claiming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson says that although the ATO realises the rules around\u00a0 car expenses<\/a>\u00a0can be tricky for anyone not using the services of a tax practitioner, and that it generally sees a lot of mistakes made in claiming these expenses, it is also seeing some people who are deliberately making false claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year we will be particularly focused on people claiming things they\u2019re not entitled to, like home-to-work travel or other private trips. Or perhaps making claims for trips that they didn\u2019t actually do or claiming expenses that their employer has already paid for or reimbursed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your clients should know that the ATO\u2019s ability to identify unusual claims or red flags is improving every year due to enhancements in technology and extra data that is increasingly being made available to it.<\/p>\n

For example, Anderson says the ATO is now using analytics to identify unusual claims being made by taxpayers by comparing them to their peers \u2014 those who are in similar occupations, earning similar amounts of income. \u201cWe also use analytics to identify claim patterns. For example we know that over 800,000\u00a0people claimed exactly 5,000\u00a0kilometres under the cents-per-kilometre method last year,\u201d she says. \u201cNow we\u2019re not suggesting that that\u2019s\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0wrong, but it is something that we\u2019ll be able to look into. And of course when we do identify a red flag we will investigate, by either checking records and maybe even talking to an employer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson says the best way for your clients to avoid mistakes is to pass on to them these three golden rules:<\/p>\n

\n
only make a car claim if you paid for the expense yourself and you weren\u2019t reimbursed<\/li>\n
ensure it\u2019s directly related to earning income \u2014 in other words your employer required you to make those trips as part of your job<\/li>\n
make sure you have a record to support your claim.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
It is also important that clients remember that there\u2019s no such thing as a \u201cstandard claim\u201d or a \u201csafe\u201d amount \u2014 as this year especially is likely to see particular scrutiny on this area od deductions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the most common mistakes that people make is claiming home to work travel,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cThe reality is that for most people this is not deductible because at that point in time, when you\u2019re traveling to and from work, your employer is not paying you, and therefore it\u2019s missing that link to earning your income.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another common mistake that people make is thinking that they can claim 5,000\u00a0kilometres as a \u201cstandard deduction\u201d under the cents per kilometre method. \u201cNow while you can claim 5,000\u00a0kilometres without needing to have a receipt, it\u2019s not a free ride. You still need to have actually undertaken that travel as part of your job, and you need to have a record to be able to show how you calculated your claim.\u201d<\/p>\n
She points out that clients should be reminded before they make the claim that this year the ATO might actually check with their employer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: Tax & Super Australia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Steve Burnham<\/strong><\/p>\n
Assistant Commissioner Kath Anderson has announced that the ATO is particularly concerned about taxpayers either making mistakes or deliberately lodging false claims in relation to work-related car…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25,26,35,85],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions\/1842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}