The now common and still growing phenomenon of peer-to-peer goods exchange sites such as Gumtree or Facebook groups can throw up some interesting scenarios regarding the acquisition of claimable assets and the consequent work-related or business expense deduction claims. In the case of Gumtree, for example, the online buy-and-sell site has enjoyed increasing usage since...

One of the recognised keys to business success is having knowledgeable, efficient and well-trained staff. But it is not always possible (or is indeed rare) to have potential staff walk in off the street who are a 100% perfect fit. People employed at any business will naturally benefit, to a lesser or greater degree, from...

As most of us know, donations of $2 or more are deductible, and there is flexibility in the rules around donating to emergency relief bodies in that no receipt is required if giving less than $10 (so called “bucket” donations). To be able to claim a tax deduction for a donation or gift to an...

The tax rules allow investing taxpayers to claim some deductions related to some of the expenses and costs that are generated when earning interest, receiving dividends or gaining other investment income. Remember, interest from a bank or other financial institution is part of your assessable income for the year. Even if the funds earning the...

If you produce assessable income at home, or some of it, and you incur expenses from using that home as your “office” or “workshop”, the ATO will generally allow that a taxpayer could be in a position to be able to claim some expenses and make some deductions. Otherwise the ATO takes the view that...

read the PDF version Here: The Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s first budget has lots of goodies with few “baddies”. This was to be expected with the next federal election only weeks away and the Coalition Government trying to make up ground in the polls. The Treasurer’s “wow” factor was a return to a budget surplus of $7.1...

The GST Act contains anti-avoidance provisions that are similar to those available for income tax purposes. The rules (known as Division 165) are designed to deter schemes that would produce benefits by reducing GST payable, increasing refunds, or altering the timing of payment of GST or refunds, and are aimed directly at artificial and contrived...

Companies are not entitled to a refund of franking tax offsets, however they may be able to convert them to carried forward losses in subsequent years. Companies are able to choose the amount of prior year losses they wish to deduct, after first having offset losses against net exempt income. There are however the following...

There are times when getting a valuation becomes necessary, especially to estimate the cost of transactions that are not arm’s-length or when no actual cash changes hands. A common example of this is in respect of property, and especially for transactions when a valuation is necessary for tax purposes. For example, let’s say that Humbert...

The ATO recently highlighted significant non-compliance with the rules prohibiting taxpayers claiming travel expenses related to residential rental properties. Late last calendar year, the ATO revealed that it had identified 26,000 taxpayers who had incorrectly claimed deductions for travel to rental properties during tax time 2018, despite recent changes to the law in this area....