Category: Uncategorized
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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 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…
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Tax stats
The 2013/14 Taxation Statistics are out… My favourite part so far… So if you earn more than $80,000 you are in the top 19.5% of people who earn anything (excludes kids and other who don’t have to lodge tax returns like those just on a pension…). if you earn more than $180,000 you are in…
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The Commissioner gets a new discretion
The Commissioner has a series of discretions. For example the Commissioner can decide not to apply the non-commercial losses provisions (section 35-55) or not to apply excess contributions tax (section 292-465). But while he can exercise these discretions he almost never does (and I pretty much only said “almost never” in this sentence as I…
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Collecting points in the Tax Act…
I have to start by telling you I am not making this up. Today the Government released the Bill for the “innovation” changes announced last year. in the Bill, called the Tax Laws Amendment (Tax Incentives for Innovation) Bill 2016, and in this Bill are some amazing concessions for investors in certain companies. These investors in…
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What changes are coming in tax and super?
Now that the Prime Minister has stated that the Budget “will be, for all practical purposes, the White Paper” in a radio interview, we can put the idea of a radical rethink of the tax system in the too hard basket. So in May we get to compare the less than comprehensive tax policies of…
TaxRambling.com 