Home About Us Our Services Testimonials Latest News Client Resources Contact Us Make an Enquiry
"Ajen is an accountant who is down to earth and genuinely interested in their clients prospering."
"As a trusted advisor you guided our business back on course when the outlook was far from positive and we look forward to your continued assistance into the future"
"His attitude towards his work and my portfolio has been exemplary. He always finds time for me at short notice and is a benefit to all."
"Ajen always has a high standard of professional manner. He continued to give me good advice and is a reliable person, helpful in sorting out problems and finding solutions easily."
"Ajendra has made himself available sometimes even after normal business hours, to assist us with any questions we have, even when sometimes they may have seemed silly or simple, he has answered in full and easy to understand terminology, at no point has he ever made me feel silly for asking."
"He is always accessible to speak with and even calls me to ask if I need help with anything."
"Ajendra's willingness to dedicate "caring time" to his clients sets him apart from others."
"I am confident to refer friends and family to his team because I know they are in the most capable hands. Ajendra’s honest, caring and upbeat nature has been an absolute godsend and I am so thankful that our paths crossed"
"Ajendra’s speaks with you in a language that you can understand and comprehend easily which assists in equity and partnership with your tax agent."
"We find you have a personal approach to your accounting practice, which makes everyone feel like number 1. This is a rare and special trait, and leaves us knowing we are in good hands."
"He is very astute, and at the same time down to earth and really interested in his clients prospering. For people like us who are new to small business this is an absolute god sent."
"He shows a genuine interest and I never feel rushed. He has created a warm and friendly environement."

ATO targets dodgy deductions for holiday homes

Share this article:

Thousands of dollars in claims “that would fail the pub test” contribute to $1.6bn tax shortfall, assistant commissioner says.

.

Expense claims running to thousands of dollars for occasionally rented holiday homes fail the pub test and will fall foul of the ATO’s crackdown on property deductions, says assistant commissioner Kath Anderson.

She said 2.2 million property owners filed rental expense claims of $42.6 billion in 2021, but full compliance by the sector would add $1.6 billion in revenue and she called on tax agents to help bring owners into line.

“Holiday homes might sound minor in the scheme of things,” Ms Anderson said at last week’s Accountants Daily Strategy Days in Melbourne and Sydney. “But if we applied the pub test, I don't think we would find many Australians would think it's OK for someone to claim thousands – in some cases hundreds of thousands – of dollars in deductions for their holiday home.

“Many of the returns that have errors in them have actually been prepared by agents. Quite often clients are not telling their agents or providing them with all of the information that they should.

“We need your help to educate clients about what is a valid rental deduction and what's not. We also need your help to get the message out there that claiming deductions and effectively taking money from the community to pay for your holiday home is not OK.”

Ms Anderson said rental property claims were high on the ATO’s hitlist for 2022-23 as it attempted to reduce the tax gap – the difference between what is collected and what full compliance would yield – down from $33 billion.

“The gap represents an unfair advantage that those not doing the right thing have over those who are doing the right thing. And in the context of a business, especially a small business, this unfair advantage can be significant.

“As you would expect, integrity and levelling that playing field will continue to be a high priority for us.”

The recent budget had delivered funding to extend the personal income tax compliance program for two years and, as well as rentals, omitted income and work expenses were also key targets.

She said work-related claims accounted for $3.7 billion of the tax gap and while many were “optimistic” characterisations of personal expenses some were more creative, “like the Maltese terrier guard dog or weekends away for stress relief”.

Increasing digitisation of ATO processes was a key feature of the compliance mission but would also make the work of tax agents easier.

“In 2022-23, you'll see us continuing to use data as much as we can. We’ll provide it in prefill will harness advances in digitalisation and data to provide more real time nudges and prompts for income and claims that seems to be a little bit outside of the norm,” she said.

“We've been delivering nudges and individual income tax returns for some time now, but we're also starting to use nudges in relation to GST reporting by delivering those upfront messages for clients that are due to get a refund, just helping them to check their claims before they finish lodging.

“Enabling them to self correct where they've made an error removes the need for follow-up contact from us, which nobody likes.”

As of October, GST lodgement nudge messaging had resulted in corrections of about $57 million and approximately 400,000 individual income tax returns had been fixed up in real time before being finalised.

With lodgement deferrals at a record high number of almost 2 million over the past year, another ATO initiative would make the process smoother.

“We know that the lodgement deferrals process can be an irritant for you,” she said. “We've not only listened, but we've actually taken active steps to address your concerns. A new lodgements deferrals function in online services for agents will be delivered in the first part of 2023.

“I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that a new lodgements deferrals function in Online Services for Agents will be delivered in the first part of 2023. Now this is a digitised version of that current clunky spreadsheet, which is more intuitive lodgement deferral experience and it will also deliver real-time visibility and quicker processing times.”

 

 

 

Philip King
06 December 2022
accountantsdaily.com.au

Want to know more?

Do you have a question about something you've read in this article? Need more information? Want to book an appointment? Simply let us know below and we'll get back to you ASAP.

Share this article: