Lodge with a registered tax agent:
Get a registered tax agent whose services on tax matters, specially on individual tax return. Lodging your tax return.Tax returns cover the financial year from 1 July to 30 June. If you’re lodging a registered tax agent for your own tax return it is due by 31 October.
You can use a registered tax agent to prepare and lodge your individual tax return for you. Registered tax agents are the only people allowed to charge a fee to prepare and lodge your tax return/ income tax return. You will need to organise all your required tax records to take to your tax agent appointment.
You can easily keep these records and share these with your tax agent using the ATO App’s my Deductions record-keeping tool. This record-keeping tool allows individuals and sole traders to keep track of general, worked-related and sole-trader deductions (and business income) in the one place during the income year. They can then email them to their tax agent.
Choosing an agent:
Tax agents must be registered with the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB). You can find a registered tax agent, or check whether a person is registered by visiting the TPB website. Using a registered tax agent will provide you with consumer protection as the TPB ensures them:
Meet and maintain the required standard or qualifications and experience.
Comply with the Code of Professional Conduct.
When choosing an agent, you should discuss the service to be provided so you both know what to expect.
To claim a work-related deduction:
You must have spent the money yourself and weren’t reimbursed. It must directly relate to earning your income. You must have a record to prove it.
If the expense was for both work and private purposes, you can only claim a deduction for the work-related portion. Work expenses reimbursed to you by your employer are not deductible. We can seek information from your employer if we think you have claimed a deduction for an expense that you have already been reimbursed for. You may be able to claim a deduction for expenses that directly relate to your work, including:
- Vehicle and travel expenses.
- Clothing, laundry and dry-cleaning expenses.
- Home office expenses.
Self-education expenses. - Tools, equipment and other assets.
- Other work-related deductions.
Employees (including casuals) can claim work-related expenses in the financial year they are incurred. This is the case even if you start employment in June but don’t receive income until the next financial year, you can claim deductions for work-related expenses incurred in June.
If you employ someone to assist you in your employment, you can’t claim a deduction for employing that person.
Offsets and rebates:
Tax offsets (sometimes referred to as rebates) directly reduce the amount of tax payable on your taxable income. In general, offsets can reduce your tax payable to zero, but on their own they can’t get you a refund.
Records you need to keep during the financial year you will receive documents that are important for doing your tax, such as payment summaries and receipts, invoices and contracts.
Instant asset write-off thresholds:
Using the simplified depreciation rules, assets costing less than the relevant instant asset write-off threshold are written off in the year they are first used or installed ready-for-use. This threshold applies to each asset irrespective of whether the asset is purchased new or second-hand. The threshold has changed over the last few years and during the current year as shown in the table below.
The entire cost of the asset must be less than the instant asset write-off threshold, irrespective of any trade-in amount. Whether the threshold is GST exclusive or inclusive will depend on your GST status, for further information about GST impacts see Cost. In working out the amount you can claim, you must subtract any private use proportion. The balance (that is the proportion used in earning assessable income) is generally the taxable purpose proportion. While only the taxable purpose proportion is deductible, the entire cost of the asset must be less than the threshold.
Note that if you later sell or dispose of an asset for which you claimed an instant asset write-off, you include the taxable purpose proportion of the amount you received for the asset in your assessable income. Prepare for the end of the financial year by making use of these small business tax concessions:
Instant asset write-off:
Business assets purchased before 30 June may be able to be claimed as a full deduction in your 2019 after June 30 tax return. The asset must have cost less than the threshold that was applied when it was first installed and ready for use.
Prepaid expenses:
Expenses such as rent, registration fees and insurance paid before 30 June that end in the next financial year can be claimed as a deduction in this year’s tax return.
Simplified trading stock calculation:
If the estimated difference between your opening and closing trading stock is $5,000 or less, you don’t need to do a stocktake. Instead, you can include the same amount for your opening and closing stock in this year’s tax return.
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