The value of a good education is widely accepted, and it is a common experience over one’s working lifetime to find that further learning is required along the path of one’s chosen career. Changing technology and evolving workplaces means that at some stage in every taxpayer’s life, an educational re-boot could become necessary — as...

Access our Wallace Partners Client Information Newsletter August 2018 below: Wallace Partners CIN August 2018

It is highly recommended that you keep receipts for all expenses and possible tax deductions you are considering claiming for you or your business. It is also a good idea to scan and file them electronically so that they are accessible should you need them for audit purposes. If you haven’t used it already, note...

As a general guideline, the ATO will allow a deduction for certain insurance premiums if it can be shown that the insurance cover relates to earning assessable income. In other words, life insurance, trauma insurance or critical care insurance are generally out. Income protection insurance is one example of the kind of cover that may provide...

Division 7A is an integrity measure that was designed to prevent companies from making tax-free distributions to shareholders or their associates. This can occur where distributions of profit are disguised as loans or other transactions. This effectively allows the shareholder or their associate to have access to the corporate tax rate. A consequence of Division...

How well do you understand the taxation of partnerships? Try these questions to find out Question 1 Which of the following is the definition of a tax law partnership? An association of persons (other than a company or a limited partnership) carrying on a business in common with a view to profit An association of...

To help pensioners who are asset rich but income poor, the government launched a version of a commercially available financial product, the reverse mortgage. The government’s answer is its pension loans scheme (PLS), whereby a pensioner can apply for a non-taxable loan using some form of real property as security. The PLS does not provide...

As a general rule, travel from your home to your workplace is not allowed as a deduction because it constitutes a “private expense”. There are however specific situations where this rule may not apply, and there can be circumstances where you may be entitled to claim some of the travel expenses between your home and your...

Assistant Commissioner Kath Anderson has announced that the ATO is particularly concerned about taxpayers either making mistakes or deliberately lodging false claims in relation to work-related car expenses over tax time 2018. “Last year around 3.5 million people made a work-related car expense claims, and together they totalled about $8.8 billion,” Anderson says. “Now that’s a lot...

Businesses in the building and construction industry, take note – the deadline is August 28, 2018 to report the total payments you made to each contractor you enlisted the services of in 2017-18. You will need to report these payments to the ATO on the Taxable payments annual report. The taxable payments reporting system was...