It’s not uncommon for landlords to be confused about what they can and can’t claim for their rental properties. What often seems to make perfect sense in the real world does not always make sense for the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

How you are taxed and what you are taxed on depends on your residency status for tax purposes. As tax residency can be different to your general residency status it’s important to seek clarification. The residency tests don’t necessarily work on ‘common sense.’

Last month, the ATO released statistics showing small business is responsible for 12.5% ($11.1 billion) of the total estimated ‘tax gap’. These new figures give visibility to tax compliance issues within the small business sector and indicate where we can expect ATO resources to be focussed now and in the future.

The ATO is concerned that, “a lack of diversification or concentration risk, can expose the SMSF and its members to unnecessary risk if a significant investment fails.”

The ATO has confirmed its view that travel in ride sharing services is not exempt from FBT under this specific exemption as they do not meet the definition of a taxi service under the FBT laws (even though they do under GST law).

However, this does not mean that FBT will necessarily apply to travel undertaken by employees using a ride sharing service.

From 1 January 2020, the Government intends to restrict the value of cash payments a business makes or accepts to amounts under $10,000. Ignoring the limit will become a criminal offence with penalties of up to 2 years in prison and/ or $25,200*.

Would you claim the Lego you bought for your kids throughout the year as a tax deduction? One taxpayer did and it made the Australian Taxation Office’s 2018-19 list of most unusual claims.

There are approximately 96,000 people permanently living overseas who currently receive an Australian social security payment. The majority of these receive the age pension. At present, the system relies on a relative to advise Services Australia that the recipient of the payment has passed away for payments to cease

By 30 June 2019, five major financial institutions paid $119.7 million in compensation for poor financial advice to 6,318 customers. The question is, how are these payments treated for tax purposes?