The Spring Racing Carnival is in full swing, and at present Melbourne is alight with frocks and fillies!

I love seeing the colours of the carnival, and am always looking out for my favourite outfits of the day.

I am a traditionalist at heart and appreciate black and white for Derby Day, structured colour on Melbourne Cup Day and flirty florals on Oaks Day.

But most importantly, my dressing tips include: never leave home without a cover-up of some sort (think jacket or wrap), and always (always) leave your shoes on!

Now what about the numbers?

In 2016 the Melbourne Cup Carnival injected a record breaking $427.1 million into the Victorian economy – that’s a lot of dresses, fascinators and bets!

As interested in numbers as I am, I went in search of some statistics for 2017 to share with you, and here is what I found:

45,000 – estimated number of bottles of champers to be opened

10,000 – estimated number of oysters to be shucked at the Melbourne Cup

305,000 – estimated number of beer units punters will enjoy

75,000 – estimated number of chicken sandwiches to be served  by caterers

100,000 – estimated number of nibble pies (AKA party pies) to be served

I think that covers the important stuff – now if anyone can send me a number for a winning horse in the remainder of the carnival, that would be much appreciated!

Regards

Thanks to Melanie Dinjaski for the stats.

There’s a bit of “girl power” and cause for celebration happening in my world this week – are you intrigued?

Before I explain, can you cast your mind back to January of 1996?  At that time, my family helped me pack all my worldly belongings into two cars and we travelled the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs for me to start my very first full time Graduate Accountant job – I was 21 years old.

I have strong memories of my dear Mum suggesting that one day I would move back home and open an accounting firm for women.  At the time I thought she was dreaming, but now I can see that she was in fact onto something!

We all know that The Tax Chic is built on the premise of “Connecting Women with Numbers”, and while I am very proud to also provide my accounting expertise to many male clients, it is when lovely women approach me with their entrepreneurial ideas that I get very excited.

And so now to the girl power and celebrating – a good friend and I often get together and ‘solve the problems of the world’, usually over a glass of vino – but a few weeks ago a business idea was born and we have been keen to take some steps forward with it.

As we were busy prepping our preliminary notes, I happened to come across a business accelerator program in the Women’s Agenda newsletter – two weeks down and we have now proudly submit our application to said program and we wait with baited breath to see if we are one of the successful ideas.

This particular program is designed for female start up entrepreneurs in the tech space and is designed for women, like my friend and I, who have great ideas (and business prowess!), but no tech knowhow to make it happen.

I know that if my Mum was here today, she’d be proud – not only of me, but of ALL women out there making things happen.  As the saying goes you’ve got to be in it to win it and that is cause for celebration in my world this week.

By the way, if there’s something you think you might want to have a go at, don’t sit back and dream – just do it!

Regards

We all love modern technology right?

A couple of months ago I switched from an Apple iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy s8 – and without getting into any arguments with Apple lovers, I’m pretty happy with my decision.

But of course that meant re-loading many Apps onto my phone, a lot of which I use for business.

I’m interested to know – what are your favourite business Apps?

Mine include the Stryke Tax App (that I send to clients to complete their tax return) and Xero (of course), as well as a mix of the following:

• Banking Apps (I use four different banks…)
• WordPress (for my website)
• Social media (including Facebook Pages Manager, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter)
• Google (maps, mail and drive)
• Office 365 (excel, word, powerpoint and OneDrive), and
• Travel Apps (flight, accommodation and deliverable meals as well as Myki and Opal)

I also have some quick links to websites I use regularly like the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

Please – recommend what else I need to check out!

Regards

I know, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – keeping records is important.

We know the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) have established rules that you can read here, but I am still surprised when I am asked by a client to “just claim what I can without receipts”…

You see, there’s no such thing!

There is a misunderstanding that individual taxpayers can claim work related motor vehicle use of 5,000 kilometres with out records – this is not exactly true.  While receipts for fuel and the like are not required, there is a requirement that you must be able to prove you travelled the kilometres (perhaps by way of a diary note).

Another misunderstanding is that individual taxpayers can claim up to $300 in work related deductions without receipts – this is not exactly true.  While the specific receipts are not required, there is a requirement that you can prove you incurred the expense.

The only way to prove you incurred these expenses is to keep records.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – keeping records is important!

Regards