My current phone is starting to have more and more issues so I will be needing to buy a new one in the next few months.
Should I buy it now before the end of the financial year to claim it on tax or should I wait?
I do use my phone to make calls here and there for work purposes.
I also tutor students and use my phone a lot to call and arrange apps or tutor over the phone etc. (I'm assuming this can be considered running a small business??)
Thanks!
I have an ABN but do not have a business name or anything like that. I do pay tax on my earnings from tutoring
If Op didn't have an ABN, then he cant expense anything against his revenue because he's not technically carrying on a business.
As a sole trader, if OP earns less than $20k a year, he still gains nothing out of expensing a phone under his business name because he's below the tax threshold anyway.
If he was registered as a company then there would be more incentive to expense everything.
But thanks OzB non-accountants for the negs
what's your current phone and what are the issues?
perhaps a factory reset could clear some clutter - worth a try before spending anything.
S4 and it's mostly battery issues and random resets
Definitely try factory reset. I did this on my S3 and was surprised at the performance turnaround.
Will do!
Battery issues - get a new battery? Around $25 bucks on ebay for GENUINE Samsung batteries. Don't get a knockoff battery that is 'compatible with Sumsung'.. will make your phone die.
Got one of those from Korea. They don't have the NFC antenna, and the battery life isn't as good as the original, but reasonable. I have also tried the "Knock off". Not worth the hassle.
If the phone is still malfunctioning after factory resetting (and changing the battery to a new one, if you want to grab a new one to see whether that helps), 20% Off 17 eBay retailer stores is on. You might be able to save fair bit getting a new phone.
Also, just out of curiousity, is it on Lollipop? Did the battery issues started to appear after the update to Lollipop? If so, you might be better of getting it back to KitKat (I've seen some people complaining about Lollipop and issues associated with it). If you've updated to Lollipop without factory resetting, that might be the cause of the issue as well (major update without factory resetting could cause problems, so I've heard). I am suggesting these because these don't cost you much to implement (other than the bandwidth you'd need to use to get the KitKat ROM, if you choose to downgrade).
Is your tutoring business an actual registered business with an ABN? If it isn't then you cant expense it.
And if you're not paying tax, there's no benefit writing it off as an expense.