Tax time is certainly upon us with many changes introduced in financial year 2019-2020 due to effects of COVID-19. Tax return accountant works harder during taxation times to claim more deductions.
Are you working from home due to COVID-19 situation?
Whether you have received any financial aid from Government?
Has your employment changed ion past financial year?
Here is the guide to prepare and lodge tax return in any situation:
INCOME STATEMENT
In order to eliminate the risk of mistakes and such amendments to tax returns, to mark your tax statement as ready, you must wait for your employer and this must be done by July 31st.
The employers are not required to give the employees the payment summaries of lodge a payment summary annual report for information reported and finalized it through Single Touch Payroll.
The last pay event for financial year, the employers are required to make finalization declaration.
They may do this by:
- 14 July, in case of 20 or more employees
- 31 July, in case of 19 or fewer employees
JOBKEEPER PAYMENT
These payments are treated in the same way as the salary and wages of your employer. If you get JobKeeper being an employee, it will be inclusive in the income statement as salary or wages.
If being a sole trader you have received JobKeeper payment, you must include the payment as the business income in individual tax return. If the business is a partnership, company or a trust, you are not required to include JobKeeper payment as an assessable income in tax return.
CLAIM ALL DEDUCTIONS
The tax deductions are the easiest method to receive higher tax refund by claiming deduction on every expense that is related to the work. Moreover, your employer must not have already reimbursed this for you. These expenses include:
- Self-education expenses
- Overtime meals
- Clothing, laundry and expenses for dry-cleaning
- Vehicle and travel expenses that includes travel between home and work
- Expenses on mobile phone, internet and home phone expenses
- Tools and equipment
Therefore, you must focus on things to consider while choosing tax accountant, you must find the one who can claim maximum deductions on your behalf.
SAVE THE RECEIPTS
During the time of taxes, almost hours are spend while tracking down receipts for the purchases that are made in the duration of last 12 months. This is not even the waste of time bout hundreds or even thousands of refund you can get.
- Keep your receipt and put it in the folder whenever you make any expense related to work
- Put the receipts in the folder if you have donated to a charity
- While working from home, save invoices of phone, water, power and office supplies
- Write down the dates and mileage in a logbook diary, if you are driving for a meeting
PREPAY YOUR BILLS
It is much convenient to pay the bills weekly or monthly. It is better to pay the bills like professional subscriptions and union fees in lump sum.
As, you can claim a tax deduction this year for expenses that relate to next year, it will not assist to reclaim such expenses earlier; however, you will get refund in current year.
SELL OFF LOSS-RUNNING INVESTMENTS
If you have earned from any investment or have sold some of the shares, you will definitely pay some tax on it. The capital loss could be an offset against “capital gain”. If you are planning to sell shares that are at loss and then buy them again in new tax year, be careful. Since, ATO issued a tax ruling to cancel tax benefits in some situations and penalties are applicable.
WHAT DOCUMENTS DO I NEED FOR COMPLETION OF MY TAX RETURN?
You will be required to take different documents for completion of your tax return and to make tax deductions, depending upon your industry and job.
Required documents are:
- PAYG summary issued by employer
- Statement outlining details of private health insurance
- Bank statements showing interest earned on the bank accounts
- Receipts of any charitable donations and accountancy fees from last year’s tax return
- Payment summary of Centre link that is related to Government support and relief packages
Before getting ready to file the taxes, gather all these documents to make tax time easier.
SOME COMMON TAX DEDUCTIONS
Some of the tax deductions include related to travel expenses and car like driving between jobs for tradesperson or expenses that are applicable to people employed in services industries like flight attendants.
Such deductions are related to unavoidable expenses as a crucial part of your job. To exemplify, for the job of flight attendant job depends upon uniform; however, a teacher might not need this. This is considered as one of the common tax deduction mistakes.
If you require any tax assistance, please feel free to contact Reliable Melbourne Accountants – Australian Accounting Firm on 1300 049 534 or can email at enquiry@rmelbourneaccountants.com.au