Epoch News

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been inundated with calls from taxpayers wanting to know where their money is and how they can access the $1,080 they now believe is owing to them. To date, more than 1.3 million returns have been processed with more than $3...

When an employee uses a taxi service for travel to or from work or if the employee is sick, it is generally exempt from Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) under the FBT taxi travel exemption. The question is, what about Uber and other ride sharing services, do they also...

From 1 January 2020 the Government intends to restrict the value of cash payments a business make or accepts to amounts under $10,000. Ignoring the limit will become a criminal offence with penalties of up to 2 years in prison and/or $25,200*. Payments of $10,000 or...

From 1 July 2019, new laws prevent superannuation providers from eroding member balances with unwanted or unnecessary insurance and exit fees. Plus, inactive accounts with low balances will be moved to the ATO to try and unite the unclaimed super with its owner. These...

The ATO has provided a concession from single touch payroll for payments by small employers to closely held payees, Single touch payroll (STP) was extended to cover all employers on 1 July 2019. For directors of their own company or for family businesses employing...

Tip-offs to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) have reached an all-time high with close to 60,000 tip-offs received between June and May 2019 – almost double the number of the previous year. The ATO thinks the number of tip-offs will reach around 70,000 for the full...

The Tax Office is actively targeting geographic areas for special visits as part of a nationwide crackdown on the black economy. This financial year, the ATO has visited 22 regions with another four in progress. Next financial year they plan on visiting over 10,000...

A consistent theme this tax time is overclaiming and under reporting. With the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) getting more and more sophisticated in its data matching approaches, taxpayers can expect greater scrutiny where their claims are more than what is...

In the 2017-18 financial year, more than 2.2 million Australians claimed over $47 billon in deductions and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) thinks that is too much - one in ten is estimated to contain errors.  4,500 audits of rental property deductions will be...

Tax on investment property  In general, taxpayers are able to deduct from their assessible income any expenses they incur generating or producing that income. An investment is negatively geared when the cost of owning the asset is more than the return. Negative...