Alerts, not alarms

Posted by Team AVS on 20 Dec, 2018 0 Comments

Every now and then you might read or hear about a “taxpayer alert” being issued by the ATO. Taxpayer alerts are the ATO's “early warning” signals to the public about a certain area of concern – it could be about fraudulent schemes, or dodgy investments, or perhaps about a tax minimisation tactic that the ATO has been made aware of and knows will get people into trouble.

Taxpayer alerts are the mechanism by which the ATO lets the gene

Consumers compensated by financial institutions still need to consider tax

Posted by Team AVS on 15 Dec, 2018 0 Comments

With the ongoing financial services Royal Commission, and likely future cases brought before various courts for compensation — or indeed the present building of class action lawsuits on the back of various revelations to come out of the Royal Commission — the ATO has felt the need to run over the rules (as they stand) regarding the taxation of compensation paid to individuals for advice from financial institutions.

The ATO says that taxpay

The Work Christmas Party

Posted by Team AVS on 29 Nov, 2018 0 Comments

It’s not quite Christmas time yet, but most businesses will be in the process of thinking ahead to the yuletide festivities, if not already into well-advanced planning. One of the perennial questions is if and how fringe benefits tax applies to these activities.

There is no separate fringe benefits tax (FBT) category for Christmas parties and you may encounter many different circumstances when providing these events to your staff. Fringe ben

Renting out part or all of your home

Posted by Team AVS on 17 Nov, 2018 0 Comments

If you rent out part or all of your home, the rent money you receive is generally regarded as assessable income. This means:

you must declare your rental income in your income tax return, and you can claim deductions for the associated expenses
you may not be entitled to the full main residence exemption from capital gains tax (CGT), which means you'll have to pay CGT on part of any capital gain made when you sell your home.

Goods and se

New Guideline on deceased estate tax debt and legal personal representatives

Posted by Team AVS on 5 Nov, 2018 0 Comments

One of the major concerns for taxpayers in taking on the role of a legal personal representative is that the Tax Commissioner may treat legal personal representatives (LPRs) as having a personal liability for a tax debt where assets of a deceased estate have been distributed and there are still outstanding amounts owed to the ATO.

In a recently released practical compliance guideline, the ATO spells out when an LPR of smaller and less complex

Main residence CGT exemption about to slip through foreign owners’ fingers

Posted by Team AVS on 29 Oct, 2018 0 Comments

As most readers will know, prior to 1985 Australia had no general tax on capital gains. But after the capital gains tax (CGT) regime was introduced in that year (September 19 specifically), the main residence exemption has been a feature ever since.

While there have been a number of changes and clarifications to the specifics of the exemption, the high-level principle has largely remained the same—namely that a dwelling used as a principal p

No more deductions for non-compliant payments

Posted by Team AVS on 18 Oct, 2018 0 Comments

The government recently released exposure draft legislation that removes the ability of taxpayers to deduct certain payments – including payment of wages and payments to contractors – if the entity making the payment fails to comply with its obligations to withhold and report information to the ATO.

If the PAYG withholding regime applied to the following payments, and the payer did not withhold the amount from the payment as required or di

Annual vacancy fee for foreign residential property owners

Posted by Team AVS on 18 Sep, 2018 0 Comments

At the end of 2017, an annual fee was introduced for dwellings owned by non-residents of Australia. The measure is part of the government’s housing affordability plan and is also a financial incentive for foreign owners to make their dwelling available for rent and increase available housing in Australia.

Under the legislation, foreign owners of residential dwellings in Australia are required to pay an annual vacancy fee if their dwelling is

Self-employed? You could claim a deduction for saving for your retirement

Posted by Team AVS on 4 Sep, 2018 0 Comments

A recent change to the rules around superannuation means that more Australians may be eligible to claim a tax deduction for putting money into super.

Before June 30, 2017, if more than 10% of your income was sourced from salary or wages from an employer, you were rendered ineligible to claim any tax deduction for after-tax contributions you may have made to your superannuation fund.

But this rule has been removed, effective for the 2017-18

Your claim for a business tax loss can be denied

Posted by Team AVS on 20 Aug, 2018 0 Comments

Business owners are naturally keen to be able to absorb a business loss as a tax deduction, but it also pays to not stray too far from the generally accepted rules regarding tax losses — there are circumstances where the ATO is legitimately able to deny such claims.

The ATO has the discretion to disallow the deduction of a tax loss if, during the relevant income year, the business attempting to make such a claim earned assessable income (or

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