Brander Accounting Updates

Ideally Tax Minimisation and planning should be on an ongoing basis and all taxpayers should review their existing situation well before the end of the tax year.
Examples of tax minimisation strategies for individuals include :-

Salary Packaging
Where possible, taxpayers should undertake an annual review of your Salary Package to ensure that you minimise your tax position.

Income Splitting
Consider splitting income earning assets with your low income earning spouse to reduce your tax position. Interest bearing deposits, investments and rental properties are a few assets that should be considered.

Capital Gains/Losses
Ensure that assets are owned for at least 12 months to be eligible for the 50% discount on capital gains.
If you have taxable Capital Gains, then consider realising any capital losses before year end to offset against the capital gains.On the other hand, it may be worthwhile deferring the sale of assets beyond the 30 June to defer paying the tax on the gain for another 12 months.

Deductions Accelerated
Consider bringing forward or accelerating tax deductions by prepaying work-related expenses. Other examples include doing last minute repairs and maintenance on investment property or motor vehicles used for work.

Medical Expense Rebate
If you have net medical expenses exceeding $1500 then a 20% rebate may be available for the tax year ending 30 June 2010. The $1500 threshold will increase to $2000 from the 1 July 2010.If you are close to the threshold and intend incurring more medical expenses, consider incurring them before the 30 June to qualify for the tax rebate.

Prepayments
Individuals may claim a deduction for prepayments where the period of prepayment is less than or equal to 12 months. Prepayments of $1000 or less may be fully deductible in the current tax year.

Investments and Rental Properties – 221D Variation
Individuals with negatively geared investments or rental properties do not need to wait until they lodge their tax return to get a refund. They can submit a PAYG Withholding Variation and get the extra amount by virtue of reduced PAYG Tax being withheld from their salary or wages income.

Rental Property – Depreciation
When acquiring a new rental property, arrange for a Quantity Surveyors Report (also known as Depreciation Schedules). This will enable you to maximise depreciation claims on buildings, structural improvements, furniture and fittings.

Superannuation Strategies
Superannuaton is probably our most tax efficient form of investment. Superannuation strategies include: salary sacrificing into super; superannuation co-contributions and making superannuation contributions for your low income earning spouse.

E-record is the Australian Tax Office's (ATO) free record keeping software for business. E-record has existed since March 2000, as an interim product that would help businesses to move from manual paper based record keeping to commercial electronic record keeping systems.

Over time, E-Record has become incompatible with commercial record keeping systems used by accountants. Since E-Record is no longer supported by the ATO, they have decided that E-record will cease to be available from July 2010 and advised that current E-Record users migrate to an alternative software application.

Cashflow Manager and Cashflow Manager GOLD are two of the available alternatives to E-record. Both are simple accounting packages that are designed to give small business owners the opportunity to keep excellent records and minimise costs. The unique 'column' format allows you to simply record your receipts & payments in columns. You don’t need to know anything about accounting, & everything is right there on the screen for you to review. Each column has a ‘GST’ tax type that automatically calculates the GST and makes preparation of your BAS Statement a breeze. This is why it has been described in The Age as "breathtakingly simple".

Cashflow Manager GOLD caters to small businesses wanting to prepare and manage invoices and look after employee wages and superannuation. This is all done through the one simple small business accounting system which incorporates Cashflow Manager, Invoice Manager and Wages Manager.

If you have any questions about Cashflow Manager or Cashflow Manager GOLD or if you'd like to order your copy, email info@branderaccounting.com.au.

New phone and email scams are currently circulating which claim to be from the Tax Office. These scams are designed to trick you into giving away your money, passwords and/or personal details.
The Tax Office never sends emails requesting you to confirm, update or disclose confidential details like your name, date of birth, address or credit card details. If the ATO needs this information, they will mail you a letter to your postal address.
If you receive any suspicious emails claiming to be from the Tax Office, let them know.You can report unsolicited emails claiming to be from the Tax Office by forwarding the entire email to: ReportEmailFraud@ato.gov.au.
You can also check on any communication that you are unsure about by phoning the tax office on 132861 for individuals or 132866 for businesses.

You may be eligible for the ETR if you or your partner incurred eligible education expenses for primary or secondary school studies for a child or a student under 25 years of age.
For the 2009 tax year the maximum claim is 50% of the eligible education expenses up to
- $ 750 for eligible primary school students
- $ 1500 for eligible secondary school students
Parents can obtain more information about the Education Tax Refund (ETR) by emailing info@branderaccounting.com.au

As we approach the end of the calendar year many small businesses are preparing themselves to take advantage of the Governments investment allowance or tax break which will end on 31 December 2009.

Small businesses (i.e. turnover less than $2 million) may be eligible to claim the additional 50% tax deduction on eligible assets costing $1000.00 or more.
Small businesses taking advantage of the tax break must enter into a contract to acquire an eligible asset on or before 31 December 2009 and must have the asset installed on or before 31 December 2010.

Eligible Assets
The business tax break covers new depreciating tangible assets and capital improvements to an existing asset. It cannot be used for repairs. Eligible Assets include the following items:

- Cars, vans trucks and other business vehicles
- Computer hardware ( not software )
- Plant and equipment
- Furniture
- Capital improvements to existing plant and equipment

For further details email info@brandraccounting.com.au

Hello and welcome. This blog is maintained to give our clients up-to-date information on accounting and taxation in Australia.

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