Tax Avoidance Hot Issue For ATO

To suppress tax dodging behaviour, the government is pushing hard at several initiatives at the federal, state and territorial levels. Last year, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) reported that about a third of large corporations did not pay tax for the 2020-2021 financial year. Despite this substantial difference, the ATO…

CPI In Australia Tops Out At 7.8 percent For 2022

The latest report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has found that the consumer price index (CPI) rose by 1.9% for the December quarter of 2022 and a total of 7.8% for the year. This is the fourth consecutive quarter during which the index has risen at a level higher…

ATO Warns That Filing Early Increases Risk of Mistakes

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) wants taxpayers to be aware that filing their tax returns early may not be the best option. While you can begin filing returns as early as 1 July, you run the risk of making mistakes as not all required information will have been pre-filled at…

ATO Advice for Lodging Cryptocurrency Losses

With the recent downturn in the cryptocurrency market, there is likely to be a good number of investors that will be reporting losses. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) is however flagging this as an issue of concern that investors need to be more careful about at tax time. According to…

ATO Warns Taxpayers Against Double Dipping

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has confirmed that in 2021, about 8.4 million Australian taxpayers filed claims on almost $19.8 billion in work-related expenses. Assistant Commissioner, Tim Loh, noted that these were a lot of deductions and that the tax body wanted to ensure taxpayers got their claims right the…

ATO to Resume Recovery of Debts on Hold

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has informed tax professionals that their clients will begin receiving notification letters on any outstanding aged debt beginning May 2022. Aged debt, or debts on hold, are uneconomic non-pursued debts that are not visible on the balance of taxpayers’ accounts as they have been classified…

IPA Criticizes ATO On New 100A Guidelines

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) released draft documents concerning the tax treatment of trusts. These guidelines provide recommendations as to how section 100A under the Income Tax Assessment Act of 1936 should be applied in regards to trust stripping arrangements. A key focus of the documents is where distributions are…

Directors Targeted In ATO Debt Collection Drive

Seen as a sign that the government is now ending its soft approach to tax debt since the pandemic started, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) announced earlier this year that they would be contacting company directors via letter concerning their potential liability for company tax debts. Since then, over 50,000…

Accountants Put On Notice Over LMITO Changes

As part of the pre-election budget reading on 29 March 2022, the government declared plans to boost the low and middle-income tax offset (LMITO) by an additional $420. Prior to this, the cost of living offset amount was $1,080. This brings the new total to $1,500 for individuals and $3,000…

Modern Tax Compliance Measures To Come

In announcing the government’s fourth Federal budget before elections likely to take place in May, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has introduced new tax measures seemingly aimed at streamlining the tax return process and making it easier for taxpayers to meet their tax payment obligations. The budget indicates that as of 1…