For many older Australians, having wealth tied up in the family home can make day-to-day expenses challenging. The Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS) is a government-backed program that allows eligible seniors to unlock some of the value in their home without selling it. What is HEAS? HEAS is essentially a reverse mortgage run by the...

Big news for anyone with a large super balance – the government has gone back to the drawing board on the controversial Division 296 tax, and the changes are a big step toward fairness and common sense. A quick recap When the Division 296 tax was first announced in 2023, it caused an uproar. The...

Let’s say you’ve just sold the house you inherited from your parents 12 years ago for $1.3 million. You’ve been renting it out for most of that time, but the property market has been hotting up and you were told by several real estate agents that they could get you a good price. But what...

With the festive season fast approaching, business owners will be turning their mind to year-end celebrations with both employees and clients. Knowing the rules around Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT), GST credits and what is or isn’t tax deductible can help keep tax costs to a minimum. Holiday celebrations generally take the form of Christmas parties...

Working out the cost of electricity used to run your electric vehicle (EV) where you use the vehicle for business purposes and you use the logbook method for making your claim for car expenses is a little more complex than monitoring the cost of fuel used to run an all petrol vehicle. You need to...

If you’re made redundant, you may receive a lump sum payout. While this can provide financial breathing room, it’s important to understand how that money is taxed. Not all parts of a redundancy payment are taxed the same and how it is taxed can make a big difference to what you actually take home. If...

If you run a small business and sell it – or some of its asset(s) – and make a capital gain, the CGT “retirement exemption” may be invaluable to reduce or eliminate the tax payable on the gain. The funny thing is that you don’t have to retire to use the CGT retirement exemption. Rather,...

Lots of people spend their own money on attending courses that will hopefully make them more employable and maybe earn a higher income. That’s a good thing – a workforce that is more highly skilled can lead to higher productivity, which is something that’s been in the spotlight of late. It’s not always clear when...

If you buy a property in an off-the-plan purchase, there are some important CGT issues to be aware of – especially in the context that an off-the-plan purchase may not actually settle until many months or even years after the initial contract is signed. The first thing to note is that assuming the off-the-plan purchase...