WAP036 – Tax News 28th August 2017

This week represented a fairly quiet week on the tax legislation front, however, as always, we have found matters to discuss that could impact you. Following on from the previous podcast, we note that the ATO are currently paying attention to work related car expenses. In 2015/16 over 3 million people made a work related car expense claim, totalling around $8.5b. Many of these claims were at the (5,000km) limit and as a result this is an area the ATO are investigating. As with any deduction, you must ensure that the claim can be substantiated and evidenced (diary evidence suffices in this instance) and is certainly not a free pass from the ATO.

The Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan has delivered a speech that the ATO is dedicated to assisting small business, contrary to how it may look, and have several key metrics to ensure this is occurring. The ATO are equally dedicated to eliminating the Black (cash) economy and the aggressive stance is focused towards this; not compliant tax payers.

Finally, The Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Measures No 4) Bill 2017 received assent on 23 August 2017 as Act No 94 of 2017. It contains amendments to improve the integrity of the wine equalisation tax (WET) producer rebate, as discussed in Episode 34.