It is important to understand the differences between a hobby and a business for tax, insurance and legal purposes among other things. For one thing, there will be certain tax and other obligations that start once you are in business. However it’s a myth that there is a dollar threshold to be in a business...

An essential starting point for consideration of trust income and how that income is to be distributed is to look at the trust deed. This very central document sets out the rules and expectations for the governance and operation of the trust and the powers that can be exercised by the trustee. Although it can...

Most people’s “to-do” list when they are planning a trip overseas will likely include items such as travel insurance, phone chargers or taking photos of their passport — but probably the last thing on anyone’s minds will be their likely tax situation before, during or after that trip-of-a-lifetime. However a few simple considerations, taken in...

Access our Wallace Partners Client Information Newsletter July 2019 below: Wallace Partners CIN August 2019

You are allowed to take issue with the ATO if it disagrees with your self-assessment of your tax position. If you believe the ATO’s assessment is incorrect, the first step is straight forward and fairly informal. You contact us and we start making inquiries. If it still seems the assessment is wrong, or if you...

This tax time, the ATO, as usual, has nominated some tax claim hot spots that it will be paying attention to — and which you should approach with caution when claiming these deductions. For example, the ATO has already flagged that it will be checking returns for taxpayers who take advantage of the exemption from...

In the first quarter of this calendar year, legislation was passed that will supplement the ATO’s current “same business test” for losses with a more flexible “similar business test”. The new test will expand access to past year losses when companies enter into new transactions or business activities. The similar business test allows a company...

In the year since event-based reporting (EBR) started for SMSFs (from 1 July 2018) the ATO says an unprecedented number of transfer balance cap reports have required re-reporting. The transfer balance account report (TBAR) is used to report certain events and is separate from the SMSF annual return. The TBAR enables the ATO to record...

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...