Category: Uncategorized
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Backpackers are already tax avoiders
There are concerns about the “backpackers tax”. This was a change announced in the 2015/16 Budget that would deem people working in Australia on holiday visas to be non residents for tax. As a result they would be taxed at 32.5% from the first dollar they earned, rather than being able to apply the tax…
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I would hate to be a super specialist…
There are a number of changes that are going to make advising high wealth/income clients to use super very hard. Lets start with transition to retirement pensions. People have been recommending staring these TTR pensions as soon as you turn 55 but make sure you salary package the amount back to your super fund. You…
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The shortest Budget summary ever…
Lets be brief (so I will ignore what will be covered in future Budgets)… The second highest bracket of the marginal tax rate goes from $80,000 to $87,000 on 1 July 2016. So people earning more than $80,000 pay less tax. The company tax rate for companies with turnover of less than $10 million goes…
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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 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…
