Serving Sydney’s Inner West
As 30 June approaches, many businesses are asking how they can save tax for the year. There’s lots of noise about the instant asset write off and many of the large retailers are offering discounts to entice you to spend before the end of the financial year. But before you leap in, this is only one of the ways to save tax. Here are 10 tax saving tips for you to think about before you head out to your nearest computer retailer. Continue reading “10 tax planning tips for small business”
The Happy EOFYS adds have started on tv and in the newspapers, so you know we must be only a few weeks until the end of the financial year. But, you’re an individual Pay As You Go salary earner, so nothing to see here – right? Wrong! While it’s true that most of these adds are targeted to the business owner, as a wage earner, there may still a few things you can do before 30 June to reduce your tax. Continue reading “How to save tax in 2019”
I was completing a tax return last week for a client. They asked a question about what extra tax they would need to pay if they decided to get rid of their private health insurance.
Now first up, let me say that I’m not going to give anyone advice about whether their policy is the right one for them or even whether they get value for money from their policy. But I did attempt to explain the tax implication of not having private health insurance.
It made me realise how complicated the Medicare levy is and how ridiculously difficult it is to give a straight answer to a really simple question. Continue reading “Medicare Levy, surcharge and private health insurance”
We driven into motor vehicles, we’ve partied our way through entertainment, so what’s left? The true answer is lots but I won’t bore you forever. Instead, I’ll go through a few more highlights. Continue reading “FBT – what else is there?”
When many people think of fringe benefits tax, most automatically think Entertainment – boozy lunches and tickets to the corporate box. But entertainment includes a very wide variety of activities – from free movie tickets to junkets to foreign destinations. But as with all tax related matters, not all entertainment is taxed equally. Continue reading “When is entertainment a fringe benefit?”
By far and away the largest category of fringe benefits provided in Australia are cars. In the 2016 year, the Australian Taxation Office indicated that the total taxable value of all cars provided to employees in the year was $1.3 billion. This makes car benefits a significant contributor to tax revenue in Australia. But just because you have provided your employee with a motor vehicle does not automatically guarantee that there is fringe benefits tax (FBT) to pay.
So let’s go through an overview of when your business might be liable for FBT on the vehicles they provide. Continue reading “Cars, cars, cars and fringe benefits”
It’s hard to imagine, but there was a time in Australia when a boozy business lunch, an employer provided car and a free trip to the Grand Prix were common ways of doing business. Some might accuse the Tax Office of being fun police, but as 31 March draws closer, I thought it would be a good time to remind every one about fringe benefits tax (FBT). Nowadays, I think we all know that employers can’t give you benefits that aren’t taxed. But how does FBT work? What’s included? And does FBT mean that there’s no point to employers giving their staff non-salary perks? In this first post, I’m going to try and answer some of the common FBT FAQs. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll look at some of the more common benefits in depth. Continue reading “FBT FAQs”
Last week I attended the Roadshows for both Xero and MYOB (they were on consecutive days at the same venue – coincidence?). This is when the software providers spruik their current product and showcase the shiny new developments that you can expect for the coming year. Think Steve Jobs launching a new iPhone but a whole more accounting-ish!
Want to sort out your Assets from your Accruals? Here are some commonly used accounting terms so you can talk like an accountant! Continue reading “Sorting through the accounting jargon”