Month: April 2016
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Negative Gearing Equity?
The Government are being hammered for not removing negative gearing as it is not “equitable”. Those saying “equity” seem to have a different definition then the standard tax axioms but when asked what they mean they indicate that the benefit of negative gearing (aka borrowing to buy an income producing asset and claiming a deduction […]
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Taxpayers ALERT! Taxpayer ALERT!
I love “Taxpayer Alerts” as they sound like some robot warning us of impending danger. But what they really are is a lot more exciting (to me at least). When the Commissioner finds people acting in ways he thinks are contrary to the tax laws he quickly releases one of these Taxpayer Alerts to say that he […]
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Where have the bills gone?
I went looking for a Bill on the aph.gov.au website. And it was not there. And after a bit of looking around I discovered something weird was happening. In March, the Prime Minister wrote to the Governor-General to ask him to prorogue Parliament on Friday 15 April and summon Parliament to sit again on Monday 18 April […]
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Super Budget Changes
It is pretty clear that the Government will decrease the threshold for Div 293 tax to $180,000 in the upcoming budget. This will mean an effective rate of 30% contributions tax for those earning more than $180,000. But the other rumour that just won’t die is that contribution caps will get reduced… His first budget […]
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A quiz… What does the average tax agent charge to prepare an individual income tax return?
In the 2013/14 year the average tax deduction claimed for managing their tax affairs by the 6 million individual taxpayers who used a tax agent to lodge their return was $372. Was that your guess?
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More “innovation tax” changes
The next part of the Government “innovation tax changes” has been released in a draft Bill. This draft Bill implements the announcement last year to supplement the “same business test” with a more flexible “similar business test” to improve access to losses for companies that have changed ownership. When the announcement was made many of […]
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More on the Small Business Rollover
Yes I am way too excited about this… But the Commissioner has produced his first two bits of guidance on using this rollover. In the first he looks at the consequences of using the rollover. This is all pretty simple stuff (cost base transfer…) but the final example has the trick in it… Example 6 – […]
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More crazy “innovation” tax changes…
The Government has released the next draft bill on the changes to the tax system to encourage innovation. This draft bill will allow taxpayers the choice to either self‑assess the effective life of certain intangible depreciating assets or use the statutory effective life. The current law only provides an effective life set by statute. If […]