Hiring employees for the festive season As the festive season approaches, employers that hire new employees to help with their business should remember the following when it comes to their employer tax and super obligations: Employers should make sure they are withholding the right amount of tax from payments they make to their employees and other payees, especially as this will help their employees meet their end-of-year tax liabilities; Employers…  Read more

Taxpayers can start lodging their tax returns With millions of pieces of information now pre-filled (including information from most banks, employers, government agencies and private health insurers), the ATO is giving taxpayers with simple affairs the ‘green light’ to lodge their tax returns. Taxpayers who plan to claim deductions this year should make sure they have the correct records, and, in most cases, “a bank or credit card statement (on…  Read more

Some employees may wonder whether a work related expense (or ‘WRE’) becomes deductible merely because their employer specifically requires the employee to incur the expense. Importantly, the ATO’s recent draft ruling on the deductibility of work-related expenses reiterates that an employer’s requirements do not determine the question of deductibility. Specifically, a number of examples contained in the draft ruling confirm that a work related expense may be deductible without an…  Read more