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...

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...

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...