Rabbit in the Headlights......
Brendan Curran | June 29, 2018
Don’t get caught like a rabbit in the headlights!!
Its almost EOFY, which is like Bean Counters Christmas. Its likely that after about 1:00 pm today all you are going to get from your accountant is drunken gibberish, and certainly after 3:00 it's going to be incoherent drunken gibberish. It's like a holy day of obligation for the nerds of the world, so please forgive us this one day of excess…..
But what can you do NOW, especially given that Nigel the CPA is knee deep in Pinot and singing "American Pie"???
Well, bugger all really. We could talk about racing out to buy things but really, if you needed it you would have bought it by now, and there is no sense in spending up big just for a tax deduction.
So what can you do……well there is something. And it doesn't need to happen by midnight on 30 june:
GET YOUR SHIT ORGANISED!!!
The whole world should be aware of the ATO’s new policy of “deny deductions with extreme prejudice”, or as I like to call it “screw over the little guys”
If you make “large” claims for things like:
Car
Tools
Internet
Telephone
Travel
Overimte meals
Ohhhh anything really
You are MUCH MUCH MUCH more likely to get an audit. The ATO budget for auditing just went up by $130million!!! That pays for an OBSCENE number of contractors to come in and ruin the days of loads of taxpayers.
And don’t think it wont happen to you!!! I have seen a twentyfold increase in audit activity in the last year!!
Sooooo:
Check your logbook and make sure it complies with ALL the regulations
Write down your odometer reading for the logbook!!!
Make sure your diary shows when you went to A B or C for work if you are using the cents per km method
Make sure your diary shows where you went for work and why
Check you have ALL your receipts
Document your home office use
Document your mobile phone use
Make sure the corporate wardrobe complies
And if you are unsure about anything, TALK TO YOUR ACCOUNTANT!!!
Consider audit insurance: this will help you to offset the cost of defending your rights to claim tax deductions.
Remember that the higher your claim the more likely it is that you will get audited
If you get audited it WILL cost you more in accounting fees
The ATO will NOT reimburse you those costs if they audit you and you turn out to be squeaky clean
They just dont care
Soooo, boys and girls, don’t be the dumb bunny sitting in the middle of the road, staring at the two white lights getting bigger and bigger. Get ready. Its ‘a comin’
Cheers, Im off to sing American Pie now…..badly but with gusto!!!!! “A long long time ago….”
Brendo.
