Spry Roughley Articles

The government's Stay Smart Online website (www.staysmartonline.gov.au/) warns taxpayers that there is a surge in scammers impersonating trusted bodies like myGov and the ATO to trick people into giving them money or personal details. These scams can take the form of emails, text messages and fake myGov login pages.  Read more…

The ATO says that $10 billion has been refunded to Australian taxpayers so far this tax time, an increase of over $2 billion from the same time last year, with most returns being processed in under two weeks.  Read more…

The ATO has reminded taxpayers who receive any foreign income from investments, family members or working overseas to make sure they report it this tax time.  Read more…

The ATO has published information about some of the most unusual claims it has disallowed. For example, around 700,000 taxpayers claimed almost $2 billion of "other" expenses including non-allowable items such as dental costs, child care and even Lego sets.  Read more…

From 1 July 2018, employers with more than 20 employees were required to provide real-time reports to the ATO of salary and wage payments, super guarantee contributions, ordinary time earnings of employees and PAYG withholding amounts.

From 1 July 2019, this Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting system has extended to all employers.  Read more…

The ATO has released a consultation paper, The ATO's administrative approach to the disclosure of business tax debt information to credit reporting bureaus. Read more…

The ATO has recently updated and reissued Practice Statement Law Administration PS LA 2011/13 Cross border recovery of taxation debts. This practice statement outlines the options available in relation to recovering a tax debt where the debtor is outside Australia, and sets out how the ATO deals with requests from other countries for assistance in recovering a tax debt owing to the other country. Read more…

The ATO has released its presentation to the 2019 Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) National Policy Roadshow outlining emerging superannuation focus areas for 2019–2020. Topics covered included:

• the taxation of compensation received by super funds;
• pension tax bonuses;
• successor fund transfers; and
• the treatment of inactive low-balance accounts. Read more…

The ATO has recently seen a significant increase in calls from individuals who were encouraged by their super funds to contact the ATO because they were ineligible for compassionate release of super (CRS). However, in the majority of cases, the individuals concerned were ineligible because they were looking to use their super to pay for general expenses. It is important to note that CRS is only an option for the following expense types:  Read more…

The Federal Court has set aside an Administrative Appeal Tribunal (AAT) decision that income derived by a business analyst through a company was subject to the personal services income (PSI) rules: Fortunatow v FCT [2019] FCA 1247 (Federal Court, Griffiths J, 12 August 2019). Read more…

If tax agent clients' employers report through Single Touch Payroll (STP) and the clients are linked to ATO online services through myGov, the ATO will send them a myGov Inbox message to let them know:

• their end of year payment summary (income statement) has been marked by their employer as "Tax ready" and can be used in their tax return; 
• if they have more than one job, their other employers may still need to provide them with a payment summary;  Read more…

The ATO has revealed some of the most common mistakes people make at tax time. Assistant Commissioner Karen Foat said that errors range from honest mistakes to people deliberately over-claiming to increase their refund.  Read more…

The Government has announced that it will lower the social security deeming rate from 1.75% to 1.0% for financial investments up to $51,800 for single pensioners and $86,200 for pensioner couples. The upper deeming rate of 3.25% will be cut to 3.0% for balances over these amounts.  Read more…

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Relief So Working Australians Keep More Of Their Money) Bill 2019

was introduced on 2 July 2019 and then passed all stages without amendment and received Royal Assent on 5 July 2019 as Act No 52 of 2019. The Bill fully implements the personal tax cuts measures announced in this year's 2019-20 Federal Budget. While Labor has consistently argued against the Stage 3 tax cuts that would apply from 1 July 2024 (see table below), it agreed to pass the Bill but said it will review Stage 3 closer to the next election.  Read more…

In the 2019-20 Federal Budget, the Government announced its intention to change and build on the Personal Income Tax Plan. The ATO says these changes, including tax rate and threshold changes and low income tax offset changes, are now law following the passage through Parliament without amendment and Royal Assent on 5 July of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Relief So Working Australians Keep More Of Their Money) Bill 2019.