When you have plans for starting a new business, one of the central decisions is which business trading structure will work best for your venture. The general problem however can be that there are both pros and cons with the main options available, so considerations need to be given with regard to the overall situation...

The income year of 2019-20 has just ticked over, which is also the first year in which an individual is able to make additional catch-up contributions to super through the application of unused concessional (before tax) contributions. These are “unused” if the fund member made less than the legislated cap on such contributions, which was...

A new ruling has been released by the ATO on the deductibility or otherwise of “penalty interest”. The term penalty interest refers to an amount payable by a borrower under a loan agreement when the lender agrees to an early repayment of a loan. The amount payable is commonly calculated by reference to the number...

An employee declaration is written advice given to an employer by their employee containing information relating to the fringe benefits staff have received. A business needs to keep employee declarations to apply certain fringe benefit tax (FBT) concessions. They are not to be sent to the ATO, but retained as part of business records. The...

Car parking fees incurred in the course of producing assessable income are generally deductible, but special rules apply if the car is used by an employee to commute between home and work or the car is provided to the employee by the employer. Non-employees Self-employed persons, partnerships or trusts are entitled to claim deductions for...

The ATO says that it recognises that most trusts are used appropriately and for legitimate purposes. It says it will continue to help those who make genuine mistakes or are uncertain about how the law applies to their circumstances. But even so, the ATO has a number of “trust risk rules” in place to identify...

Operators in some Australian industries as well as select government entities are required by the ATO to lodge a taxable payments annual report (TPAR). The information provided in these reports provides the ATO with the information that allows it to identify contractors who have: not included all their income on their tax return not lodged...

When completing your tax return, you’re entitled to claim deductions for some expenses, most of which are directly related to earning your income. To successfully claim a deduction for work-related expenses, it’s important that you must have spent the money yourself and weren’t reimbursed, it must be directly related to earning your income, and importantly...

If you are an employer, you may appreciate knowing what the ATO is looking out for, and the fringe benefits you’re expected to report, so you can avoid attracting its attention or making costly mistakes. In this year’s updated ATO list for taxpayers, titled “What attracts our attention”, there are six items that specifically relate...

It’s known by a variety of names, such as the black economy, or even the cash or hidden economy. But whatever the label, its existence is a pebble in the ATO’s shoe that it is forever looking to prise out. As part of that ongoing effort, it has settled upon certain “averages” of what constitutes...