TaxRambling.com

The Commissioner of Taxation has just written to some of its staff. The letter states that the staff may get a shock when they get their payment summaries.

You see, like almost every employer in Australia, the Commissioner pays allowances while employees are travelling.

We all know that the amount we pay is the Commissioner’s reasonable allowance amounts. We do this as if we stay under these amounts there is no PAYG Withholding and the amount does not appear on payment summaries.

But it appears the Commissioner paid his staff travel allowances above his own reasonable limits. Worse still he did not withhold…

So employees now have to find what they spent their allowance on so they can claim a deduction… Because the Commissioner cannot comply with his own reasonable travel allowance limits…

UPDATE: And tomorrow the Commissioner will update his determination on reasonable travel allowances in TD 2014/19… Beautiful timing!