How to Maximize your Tax Refund

-

How to Maximize your Tax Refund

Everyone would want to legitimately maximize their tax refund. Who wouldn’t?

 But how?

 I scoured through the Australian Tax Office’s website on my first job. I checked every single line there to check for my eligibility. I loved doing it.

So, I listed a few of more generic ones below. However, please please please do check the Tax Office’s website for your eligibility. And also, who knows, you discover a unique tax deduction for your line of work ^.^.

A note: 
It pays you dividend to be on the err side in claiming offsets and/or tax deductions. 
The Tax Office can conduct a tax audit and may request you (if you are audited) to substantiate your expenses, and they may disallow unsubstantiated expenses, which may cause a tax shortfall. What you need to be aware of is there may be hefty penalties on tax shortfall. So, it pays you dividend to be on the err side when you are claiming deductions and offsets.

The more generic Tax deductible expenses:
  1. Home Office Expenses, check your eligibility on www.ato.gov.au
  2. Tax deductions for managing your own tax affairs.
  3. Tax deductions for expenses necessary to be incurred from working in your occupation,  such as uniform, sunscreen & sunglasses (for tradesperson)
  4. Donation to endorsed charities
  5. Studying expenses, if you are eligible
  6. Travel expenses if you are eligible
  7. Car related expenses (if used for working purposes)
  8. Investment Property tax expenses:
    1. depreciation
    2. property manager
    3. repairs and maintenance
    4. landlord insurance premiums
  9. Income Protection insurance premium that is paid not through your superannuation.
  10. Think through of all expenses that you  incur in order to gain income that could be deducted - check in ato.gov.au, because personal expenses generally are not deductible, however some are (sunscreen and sunglasses for tradesperson could be deductible)
How to Track your Invoices/Receipts
During the year, focus in tracking all of your expenses, if you are a salaried worker.
  1. Take a photo of the receipts
For every receipts, invoices, emails, etc which form proofs (substantiations) for your tax deductible expenses >> take pictures of them!
  1. Mail the photos to your email
Email yourself (into your gmail, hotmail, yahoo mail, work mail, etc) the photos.
Put it into one email with the right title, for example “Printer Ink September 2015”, “Donation to Monash October 2015”, etc.
  1. Label it & ‘folder it’ Income Tax Return FY20xx
Once the email of the photos is in your mailbox, label it with the appropriate Financial Year (FY) for example Financial Year 2015 (FY2015) or Financial Year 2016 (FY2016).
In my Gmail, I created labels and folder named ITR FY2015 in which I put all relevant tax documentations for FY2015 affairs.
  1. Save it into your Google Drive Folder Income Tax Return FY20xx
In your google drive, create Income Tax Return folders, name it Income Tax Return Financial Year 2015, or 2016, etc.
Download the attachments, from your gmail, into the corresponding Income Tax Return folder in your google drive.
  1. Save it into your harddrive folder Income Tax Return FY20xx
Save another backup into your computer’s or laptop’s or mobile’s hard-drive.
  1. Save it into box.com, if you want.
At the end of the financial year, you have all of your tax expenses ready to be lodged in the Tax Return.
Tax Return will be a breeze.
Tax Offset
More general tax offsets that could be applicable to wider community. For more specific ones, check the ato website.
  1. Private Health Insurance tax offset
  2. Housekeeper tax offset
  3. Low income tax offset
  4. Medical tax offset
Note: tax offsets reduces your taxable income dollar to dollar.
On the other hand, tax deductions only reduces your taxable income by your marginal tax rate.
This means tax offsets reduces your tax more than tax deductible expenses.
Check for your eligibility before claiming by visiting the Australian Tax Office website on www.ato.gov.au.
If you are unsure, call the ATO Helpline and seek advice, and record the advice (get the receipt ID with time and date of the call, and the ATO Office who assisted you). The purpose is for you to have proof that you are following their advice.




Spend a few minutes filling online surveys, minute online tasks and earn lotsa of $$$
Sign up for FREE by clicking below:
Vindale

Swagbucks

Rewards Central

Earn cash backs and shopping a bargain by signing up for FREE:
Brands Exclusive

OZ Sale

Cash rewards
For cushier income: 
Invest in solid cryptocurrency through Binance
Binance has low fees
Binance provides chance for Australians to invest in a wide array of good cryptocurrencies (the next revolution) with very low fees.

For currency trading use IG: 







Comments

Post a Comment

Please leave a comment below

Popular posts from this blog

How to stick to your budget

-
Image
1. Know exactly all of your expenses . List all of your expenses - write all of them down to the specific and exact details. Know exactly the following detail about your expenses: i). What are they? Gas bill, electricity bill, water bill,  hot water bill, food or grocery bill, home phone & internet bill,  mobile phone bill, private health insurance bill, public transport tickets, fuel costs, car insurance bill, home insurance bills (building & content insurance, or renter's insurance), rent or mortgage payment, council rates, body corporate rates, socialising and  entertainment expenses, etc. ii). Know when are they due, to the exact date or if not possible, to the exact period. For example, I know exactly that my mobile phone will be due on every 25th of the month, my private health insurance will be due on exactly every 1st of the month. For my annual home insurance bill, annual car registration cost and annual landlord's insurance bills, I know th
Read more

How to really save money?

-
I am a very good money manager. I save a very high amount of my salary consistently every payday. I was saving 75% of my income consistently in the last three years. I have zero debt. I paid everything, including car, with cash - no loans. I aimed to be able to afford a house with cash, too. I am not a weirdo frugal. I wear reasonably nice clothes, shoes and accessories (bags, watch and jewellery). I go out and enjoy nice dinners occasionally. And no, I am not a high income earner. I earn $70,000 gross per year. And no, I don't earn any bonuses at all. And no, I don't get anything (money, gifts, presents, bribes, or anything alike) from anyone, at all. People always come up to me and literally complained, "why can you have that?" "how do you  afford that?" "how do you have enough money?" "you must have a rich boyfriend!" All sort of negativities. I always say "save, have zero debt and pay cash for everything." May b
Read more

How I saved $130,000 in less than three years with under average salary

-
Image
I consistently save 75% of my income year after year. And , I have accumulated more than $130 , 000 on less than average income in three years. How did I do it? I use my budget planner (download for free here ) to achieve it. How does using my budget planner achieve constantly 75% saving of income every year. In my free budget planner , I have listed almost all possible expenses. This tells you about your expenses, so that you know (really know know ) your expenses - what are they, how much are they, and when are they due. Once I knew all of my expenses (what are they & how much are they & when are they due) , I knew what are necessary expenses and unnecessary expenses. Then, I was able to eliminate all of my unnecessary expenses, and to reduce my necessary expense to its core. This makes my financial to be lean. What is a necessary expense and what is an unnecessary expense? I asked myself, what is a necessary expense? What makes
Read more