There are over 8 million taxpayers claiming work-related deductions and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) are checking them out!

In 2014/15 approximately 450,000 income tax returns were scrutinised and that number is climbing every year as technology advancements are made.

The following weeks will see me exposing some of the dodgy deductions the ATO have picked up on, I hope you enjoy the read.

Case study 4 – Car expenses

A taxpayer claimed deductions for car expenses using the log book method.

The ATO found they had recorded kilometres in their log book on days where there was no record of the car travelling on the toll roads, and further enquiries identified that the taxpayer was out of the country.

Their claims were disallowed.

Regards

Commerce Warrnambool is officially relaunched and is here to provide a broad representation for all businesses operating across Warrnambool and beyond.

The new look organisation has established a number of portfolios, and if you aren’t sure where you fit, simply get in touch and we’ll work it out together!  The portfolios include:

• retail
• tourism
• hospitality
• professional services
• manufacturing
• micro and home based businesses
• community health
• education
• trades

The Committee have made a firm undertaking to work towards Warrnambool being ‘WORLD READY’, and would love for you to be a part of this exciting time in our region.

Simply head over to the website and complete your expression of interest: http://commercewarrnambool.com.au/membership/

Regards

There are over 8 million taxpayers claiming work-related deductions and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) are checking them out!

In 2014/15 approximately 450,000 income tax returns were scrutinised and that number is climbing every year as technology advancements are made.

The following weeks will see me exposing some of the dodgy deductions the ATO have picked up on, I hope you enjoy the read.

Case study 3 – Travel expenses

A medical professional made a claim for attending a conference in America and provided an invoice for the expense.

When the ATO checked, it found that the taxpayer was still in Australia at the time of the conference.  The claims were disallowed and the taxpayer received a substantial penalty.

Regards

Last week I had a monumental win for a small business client and I am pleased to share some of the details with you (with permission from my client of course).

This particular client has had ongoing issues with their private specialised business and accounting software provider and a while ago the provider actually went out of business.

This meant my client had unresolved issues with their accounting records and it took a great deal of time and effort on their part, and mine, to get things back where they need to be.

The fallout of this was that the client was late lodging some documents to the ATO and incurred interest and penalties of almost $5,000!

But, knowing how reasonable the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) are when a client experiences hardship, I applied for this amount to be remitted and the ATO obliged – I told you it was a win!

This is not the first time I’ve had significant wins for clients, at my old firm, due to circumstances outside my control, two clients incurred significant penalties of $64,000 and $17,000 and I was successful in having both amounts refunded to the client.

So…if you have some problems with documentation and the ATO charge you penalties and interest, make sure you contact me and explain what happened before you pay, I may just be able to help you out.

Regards