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Feeling charitable in the lead up to the festive season?  Whether you’re digging deep to support your favorite charity or dropping five bucks into a donation bucket, hang onto those receipts! You might be able to claim a deduction next tax time. For your donation to be deductible, it must be for $2 or more and made to what’s called a ‘deductible gift recipient’ (DGR). Organizations entitled to receive tax-deductible gifts are called 'deductible gift recipients' (DGRs). You can only claim a tax deduction for gifts or donations to organizations that have DGR status. The person that makes the gift (the donor) is the person that can claim a deduction. What is a DGR? A deductible gift recipient (DGR) is an organization or fund that can receive tax-deductible gifts. Not all charities are DGRs. For example, in recent times crowdfunding campaigns have become a popular way to raise money for charitable causes. However, many of these crowdfunding websites ...

TAX TIME MYTHS VS FACTS Here are some of the most common MYTHS relating to tax deductions – Myth:  I can claim home to work travel because I need to get to work to earn my income. Fact:  For most of us, home to work travel is a private expense. Myth:  Everyone can automatically claim $150 for clothing and laundry, 5,000km under the cents per  kilometer  method for car expenses, or $300 for work-related expenses, even if they didn’t spend the money. Fact:  There is no such thing as an “automatic” or “standard deduction”. Substantiation exceptions provide relief from the need to keep receipts in certain circumstances. While you don’t need receipts for claims under $300 for work-related expenses, $150 for laundry expenses (note: this is for laundry expenses only and does not include clothing expenses) or if you are claiming 5,000km or less for car expenses under the cents per kilometer method, you still must have spent the money, i...

Fuel Tax Credits Businesses can claim credits for the fuel tax, which is excise or customs duty, included in the price of fuel they acquire and use in business activities in machinery, plant, equipment and heavy vehicles. Some eligible activities include road transport, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, fishing, forestry, electricity generation, landscaping, panel beating, cement kilns, quarrying, and industrial furnaces. In fact, most businesses can claim fuel tax credits. The rate that varies depending on the fuel used and business activity. Examples of fuels eligible for fuel tax credits include petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG. Some fuels aren’t eligible such as fuel you use in light vehicles of 4.5 tons gross vehicle mass or less, traveling on public roads. A business must be registered for both GST and fuel tax credits before claiming fuel tax credits. Contact Expert Tax on 0449 952 855 or 1300 8 MY TAX (1300 869 829) for further assistance. ...

Tax Free Threshold Is your refund smaller than last year? Do you have an unexpected amount owing to ATO? Why do I have to pay when tax rates have gone down and 1 st  $18,200 are tax free? If you answered yes to one of the above questions, you need to understand what his Tax Free Threshold and how it works. What is the tax-free threshold? If your total income for the year is in the lowest income or tax bracket, you pay no tax. Once you move out of the lowest bracket and into the next one, you have crossed the threshold from paying no tax to paying at least the lowest rate of tax. If you are an Australian resident for tax purposes, the first $18,200 of your yearly income is not taxed. This is called the tax-free threshold. Therefore, by claiming the threshold, you reduce the amount of tax that is withheld from your pay during the year. In 2015–16 the $18,200 tax-free threshold for pay as you go (PAYG) withholding purposes is equivalent to: ...

Foreign Income If you’re an Australian resident for tax purposes, you are taxed on your worldwide income, so you must declare any foreign income in your income tax return. Foreign income includes: • Foreign pensions and annuities • Foreign employment income • Foreign investment income • Foreign business income • Capital gains on overseas assets. As your foreign income may also be taxed in the source country, it is potentially subject to double taxation. To overcome this, Australia has a system of credits and exemptions and has signed tax treaties with more than 40 countries, including all our major trade and investment partners. From September 2018, ATO will be receiving and exchanging financial account information with participating foreign tax authorities to ensure that Australian residents with financial accounts in other countries are complying with Australian tax law. If you have foreign income that you have not disclosed, you may be liable to pena...