Employees may use their own cars for working purpose -e.g sales people drives car to meet clients, Office Administrator may drive car to bank or post office . you can claim these MV expenses in your tax returns as taxable deduction only if :
The cents per kilometre method is available for use with some changes. Separate rates based on the size of the engine are no longer available from 1 July 2015. Under the revised method, individuals use 66 cents per kilometre for all motor vehicles for the 2015–16 income year. The Commissioner of Taxation will determine the rate for future income years.
Where you and another joint owner use the car for separate income-producing purposes, you can each claim up to a maximum of 5,000 kilometres.
See also:
For 2014–15 and earlier income years, there are four different methods for claiming work-related car expenses when using your own car, or one you leased or hired under a hire-purchase agreement.
The four methods are:
You may need to make some adjustments to your claim if the car is jointly owned.
If you use a borrowed car or a vehicle other than a car for work purposes, you can claim the costs you incur (such as fuel costs) as a travel expense. You can’t use any of the methods described here to calculate your claim.
Other travel expenses you may be able to claim include:
You may have to show that you have reduced your claim to exclude any private portion of your trip.
If your travel expenses are reimbursed you cannot claim a deduction.
You may be entitled to claim deductions for home expenses including a computer, phone or other electronic devices you are required to use for work purposes, as well as a deduction for running costs.
As an employee, generally you can’t claim a deduction for occupancy expenses, including rent, mortgage interest, council rates and house insurance premiums.
Running costs
If you perform some of your work from a home office, you may be entitled to a deduction for the costs you incur in running it, including: for home office equipment, such as computers, printers and telephones, the cost(for items costing up to $300) or decline in value (for items costing $300 or more) work-related phone calls (including mobiles) and phone rental (a portion reflecting the share of work-related use of the line) if you can show you are on call, or have to phone your employer or clients regularly while you are away from your workplace heating, cooling and lighting the costs of repairs to your home office furniture and fittings cleaning expenses.
our income is declared on your tax return each year. Most of this information is pre-filled from details we receive from employers and financial institutions, but there is some you will need to record manually.
Regardless of whether your income is pre-filled or manually entered, you need to make sure it is accurate and complete.
The links below provide information on the types of income you need to declare:
Other income – including compensation and insurance payments, discounted shares under employee share schemes, and prizes and awards.
For Business :
What`s the business structure should I choose for my business ?
When you start a business in Australia, you may be confused about how to choose the business structure . Sole Trader, Company, Trust & Partnership What`s the difference ? Which structure is best for you ?
Sole Trader :
A sole trader business structure is a person trading as the individual legally responsible for all aspects of the business. This includes any debts and losses, which can’t be shared with others. This is the simplest, and relatively inexpensive business structure that you can choose when starting a business in Australia. As a sole trader, you’ll generally make all the decisions about starting and running your business, although you can employ people to help you.
Advantages of Sole Trader :
Disadvantages of Sole Trader :
Company :
A company is its own legal entity and lets you conduct business throughout Australia. You can also make use of other privileges, such as corporate tax rates or limited liability.
Advantages of Company
Disadvantages of Company
Others- Partnership & Trust
Trust :
A trust is a business structure whereby you operate the business as a ‘trustee’. This means you are responsible for holding income, assets or property for the benefit of others, who are then referred to as ‘beneficiaries’. A trustee could be an individual person, a number of people (partnership) or a company
Partnerhsip :
A partnership is defined as being two or more persons (partners) engaging in business together with a view to make profit – this is sometimes referred to as a ‘strategic alliance’. While partnerships don’t legally have to be equal for the partners involved, all partners share the responsibilities and risks involved in running the business.
While a business partnership doesn’t pay tax on its income, it must lodge a partnership tax return declaring all income earned and all deductible expenses. It will also show how the net income or loss was distributed between the partners.
Each partner must declare their individual share of the partnership’s net income or loss in their individual tax return, whether or not they actually received the income.
For capital gains tax (CGT) purposes, each partner owns a proportion of each CGT asset and calculates a capital gain or capital loss on their share of each asset.
The individual partners make a capital gain or capital loss from a CGT event, not the partnership itself.
Like a partnership, a trust is not a separate taxable entity, but the trustee is required to lodge a tax return for the trust.
Generally, the beneficiaries of the trust declare the amount of the trust’s income to which they are entitled in their own tax return and pay tax on it – even if they didn’t actually receive the income.
An exception to this is, you don’t need to declare a trust distribution if family trust distribution tax has already been paid.