Tax Updates
(Please click on link to see full update)
April 2024 Practice Update - Earning income for personal effort
Taxpayers should remember that, if over half their income is from a contract for their personal effort or skills, then their income is classified as personal services income ('PSI'). Taxpayers can receive PSI in almost any industry, trade or profession, e.g., as a financial professional, IT consultant, construction worker or medical practitioner.
March 2024 Practice Update - Small business concessions
The ATO has recently issued a reminder that small business owners may be eligible for concessions on the amount of tax they ultimately pay. This depends on their business structure, their industry and their aggregated annual turnover.
January - February 2024 Practice Update - Government announces changes to proposed 'Stage 3'
Despite previous assurances, and after much speculation, the Government has announced tweaks to the 'Stage 3' tax cuts that will apply from 1 July 2024.
December 2023 Practice Update - Claiming deductions in relation to a holiday home
Taxpayers should remember that they can only claim deductions for holiday home expenses to the extent they are incurred for the purpose of gaining or producing rental income.
November 2023 Practice Update - Losses in crypto investments for SMSFs
Trustees thinking of investing in crypto need to be aware of the ways that crypto can be lost, including through scams, and how these scams can be avoided. Many crypto assets are not commonly considered to be financial products, which means the platform where crypto is bought and sold may not be regulated by ASIC. Therefore, trustees may not be protected if the platform fails or is hacked. When a crypto platform fails they will most likely lose all of their crypto.
October 2023 Practice Update - Choosing the right PAYG method
The ATO advises that Pay as you go (‘PAYG’) instalments are calculated using either the instalment amount method or the instalment rate method.
September 2023 Practice Update - Appointing an SMSF auditor
An SMSF’s audit must be finalised before the trustees lodge their SMSF annual return, as the trustees will need some information from the audit report to complete the annual return.
August 2023 Practice Update - Claiming GST credits for employee expense reimbursements
Employers may be entitled to claim GST input tax credits for payments they have made to reimburse employees for expenses that are directly related to their business activities. A 'reimbursement' is provided when a taxpayer pays their employee the amount, or part of the amount, of a particular work-related purchase they make.
July 2023 Practice Update - Court penalises AMP $24 million for charging deceased customers
The Federal Court has found that four companies that are or were part of the AMP Group breached the law when charging life insurance premiums and advice fees from the superannuation accounts of more than 2,000 deceased customers.
