Tips on Where to Go or What to Do for a First Time Taxpayer This Upcoming Financial Year June July 2020

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Australian Taxation Office

• 

  [Deactivated] on 07/12/2019 - 22:36

  +1

  Strap yourself in, make sure tray tables are in the upright and locked position, and enjoy the ride.

  In all seriousness if youre only just above the tax free threshold i wouldnt be worrying too much. You still wont pau tax after various offsets.

  Use mygov if your affairs are simple. Just keep reciepts of any legitimate deductions. Ato website has loads of info.

  • 

    AlienC on 08/12/2019 - 02:04

    What happens if you forget or miss the tax season?

    • 

      vikvance on 08/12/2019 - 08:17

      If you owe money to the tax office, then they will fine you very heavily.

      If they owe you money, then they have the power to fine you, but as a matter of practice will not impose the fine.

      This is assuming that you are late by only a few months. If you fail to lodge a return for many many years, then they may still fine you.

• 

  mubd1234 on 07/12/2019 - 23:10

  +1

  If your tax affairs are not complex (i.e. you've just got Centrelink income and work income), it is a snap to do it yourself on the MyGov/ATO website.

  Your income data from Centrelink and your employer should be pre-filled if you wait a couple of weeks after July 1.

  You can do it manually if you want to submit the return as early as possible, but make sure you enter the correct amounts from your payslip (tax withheld and gross income) and Centrelink statement (available thru their portal after July 1), otherwise you might have the wrong tax return figure calculated.

  Health insurance, if you have it, will also be pre-filled. You can also manually fill this in if you want to be an early bird once you receive the health insurance statement - usually within a fortnight of July 1.

  Keep deductions in mind and read the rules on the ATO website about claiming them. The most common deductions would be for work uniform and protective clothing, and anything else you've spent money on that's related to your work. A mobile phone and its phone plan may be deductible if you use it a lot for work purposes (you will have to work out the percentage - read the ATO site!).

  They're pretty simple once you read through them - https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Ded…

• 

  brendanm on 07/12/2019 - 23:10

  +2

  End of tax season is over 6 months away. You will likely have very simple tax affairs, and a lot of your information will probably be prefilled. It's very easy to use the ATO online tax lodgement thing. They will then tell you how much money you will get back, or how much to pay (highly likely you will be getting a refund).

  • 

    AlienC on 08/12/2019 - 02:04

    What are the dates for start middle end and end of absolute last deadline for tax return dates.

    • 

      vikvance on 08/12/2019 - 08:19

      +1

      Start: 1 July

      If you are lodging the return by yourself then have to file by 31 October

      • 

        AlienC on 08/12/2019 - 13:29

        So what usually happens in June or nothing really just public advertising about the coming tax season kind of like the past black Friday and cyber Monday deals.

        July 1st is the absolute first day you can lodge a tax return or whatever it is called?

        • 

          vikvance on 08/12/2019 - 13:32

          @AlienC: Yes. The tax year is from 1 July to 30 June the next year. After 1 July you file the return.

          Usually it takes some time for the salary information from your employers to be uploaded to the ATO's systems. So, usually people will file returns a little bit later than 1 July.

          If you find the whole tax thing overwhelming then you can just go to one of the tax agents. They'll often set up stalls in the large Shopping Malls. They'll charge around $60 to $70 and guide you through the whole process.

• 

  toniyellow on 07/12/2019 - 23:10

  You can get free help as a low income earner https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/lodging-your-tax-return/t…

  The ATO aren't interested in your birthday money and specifically tell you not to declare it
  https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Inc…

  If you wait a litte bit they get info pre-filled direct from centrelink but you should keep your own records of the payments you have received just in case you do not agree with what they have pre-filled
  https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Lodging-your-tax-return/I…

  Same deal with your payslips. https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Single-Touch-Payroll/Single-…

• 

  Sage on 07/12/2019 - 23:22

  -1

  Save money and skip the Tax Agent.
  Welfare is taxed, so you'll be paying tax on all income.
  They're only interested in total figures for the financial year.

  I'm glad to kind of say that this fortnight will be my first time not getting paid by centrelink because I worked so many hours and made enough gross income that it negated my payment which is kinda good and bad moving along in life which feels great.

  Well done, that was me not too long ago.
  You'll find there's more to work than the pay. The experience and workplace satisfaction is pretty valuable.
  It's true there is a grey area where if you work a certain amount of hours less, you get more money because Centrelink kicks in. So ideally you want to be above that pay bracket but I wouldn't be too concerned over it since it ultimately leads to higher pay.

  You should be able to do a practise lodgement. It's probably more simple than you imagine.
  They want to know how much you earned from each source and the tax withheld on those.
  They no longer require payslips or any attachments, but you'd need those if you're going through an Agent.

  A small tip, Deductions. You may have honest "work related expenses" to claim that you can put on the Tax Return which will reduce the total amount of "taxable income" so basically you get a small percentage of the costs back. There are 2 things to note about doing this, no proof is required unless the total of Deductions is higher than $300. So you can just put $300 in "other" work related expenses for a slightly better result on the tax return.
  Second thing to note, and this is risky, but you can just put in any amount or exaggerate costs that were only indirectly work related. Though you're not supposed to.
  They conduct audits on work related expenses by comparing the expenses with other people's tax returns. So things like 10 grand on education brings a red flag since it's not a type of cost meant to be covered and it's so high. So you can cover your bases and have receipts ready for the expenses in case they are questioned, or you can literally just put in an amount and hope they don't question you. (They send a warning letter before conducting an actual audit, in the odd chance your lodgement gets questioned)

  Centrelink via MyGov I think only keeps records of your payments for a certain time not sure but it is not kept available for you to see indefinitely.

  It's worth checking the site to see what's available.
  When I was working for the ATO we'd keep a 10 year record of all earnings and were able to look them up and provide the info to callers. I believe they since made this available on the public website so people don't have to call. 10 years is plenty of time though.

  Last tip, you can use the Simple Tax Calculator to get a quick view of what the result of your tax return will be. If it's a refund or a debt.
  Most likely it will be a refund if your employer has been taxing correctly. Average result is a refund of about $1,600 from what I've seen dealing with people's tax returns.
  If it's a debt, you can wait until October to lodge it if you want to delay having to pay it. (Or re-check to make sure it was filled correctly, debts are rare)

  • 

    AlienC on 08/12/2019 - 02:03

    -1

    So for deductions if I put $299 I should be fine and dandy?

    I am pretty sure I have spent that much in total if not more on work uniform and protective gear but don't have the receipts any more.

    In fact my job active provider reimbursed me for some but not all so would that be double dipping if I still used the reimbursed items on my deductions?

    Also what are the cut off dates in relation to tax reporting is it start July 1 end October 30 or something else?

    I will probably try it online this first year using ATO and MyGov shouldn't be too hard and yeah my employer and centrelink should have all that stuff prefilled so I am just over thinking it.

    • 

      ribbonsofnight on 08/12/2019 - 14:19

      -1

      If you can't list the items you're claiming then $299 is asking for trouble.

      • 

        AlienC on 09/12/2019 - 00:15

        I can list them if I really need to it is just a lot of hivis shirts and tradie work pants and some work shoes and disposable gloves really.. I just stocked up on a bit and I definitely reached over $300.

        I probably have the photos and scans of the receipts still on my phone somewhere if need be for some of them.

        • 

          ribbonsofnight on 09/12/2019 - 17:56

          @AlienC: Well do your deductions properly then. It's still fraud if you were reimbursed though. Make sure they're all legitimate deductions.

          • 

            AlienC on 09/12/2019 - 21:21

            @ribbonsofnight: So just deduct the ones that have not been reimbursed got it.

  • 

    vikvance on 08/12/2019 - 13:38

    -2

    Save money and skip the Tax Agent.

    The tax system is complicated. Skipping the tax agent is only good advice if someone is interested in spending a lot of time going through the ATO website trying to understand the system.

    • 

      ribbonsofnight on 08/12/2019 - 14:04

      the tax system might be complicated but most people will find their tax is extremely simple. Sure there's the occasional thing where you don't know if it is tax deductible but it's not hard to determine all that.

    • 

      brad1-8tsi on 09/12/2019 - 11:13

      +2

      MyTax is so simple.

      A tax agent asks questions in order to prompt your memory. At the end of the day you are still responsible for the outcome of your tax return and the information therein.

      • 

        ribbonsofnight on 09/12/2019 - 18:01

        Yeah I don't understand why people are so keen to pay $70 for a tax agent to jog their memory. If they're that bad at remembering then the tax agent will dutifully submit all your guesses provided it adds up to under $300 and you're still the one on the hook for any errors if the ATO bothers to check.

• 

  brad1-8tsi on 09/12/2019 - 11:22

  OP.
  I'm really surprised that you haven't had to file previously.
  My daughter was <$18k income and no tax retained for years and didn't file (even though I told her she should check). She finally had tax retained last year ($32) and asked me for help with MyTax. When she logged in there were 3 outstanding tax returns plus the current one. She had her records and it took 20 minutes to do the 3 once we had the prefill info done. No tax owing and no penalties. YMMV.

  Even the latest return only took 15 mins and we double checked it all. She was pretty excited about the $32 refund.

  I'm not a financial planner or tax agent but know my way around a tax return and acceptable deductions (but not Centrelink stuff). If you live near Newtown I'd be happy to run a 2nd pair of eyes over your return to make sure it's OK.

  • 

    AlienC on 09/12/2019 - 21:27

    I know how good and easy the tax return process is now with the online stuff like ato and mygov I just wanted to make sure I had covered everything and wasn't forgetting anything because yeah getting a letter later saying you missed xyz will get pretty annoying.

    I am pretty sure my employer is reporting my tax to the right authority so come tax time it should all be prefilled hopefully but if it doesn't get prefilled then am wondering what others have had to do or other "horror" stories regarding filing tax and etc.

    I am also interested in the business side of filing a tax but I will leave that for next time as I do want to get into business in future some time in my life.. Just getting used to casual work for now and when I have a good grip on that and maybe even a second job I will try my hand at some business ideas I have had in my mind.

    Nothing big just some small passive income streams after the initial work is done and complete will be interesting but I'm gonna schedule all that for another time :)

    Newtown? Ok cool I will remember that if the process gets too unwieldy for me.. sometimes good to get a second opinion on these things.

    • 

      brad1-8tsi on 09/12/2019 - 21:56

      If your employer doesn't send the info in for prefill then I'd assume you get a hard copy Payment Summary

      • 

        AlienC on 09/12/2019 - 23:19

        Is this standard or do you have to request it?

        • 

          brad1-8tsi on 10/12/2019 - 07:38

          @AlienC: I just looked it up. Single Touch Payroll is compulsory for all businesses now so the info will be uploaded and prefilled.

          https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Single-Touch-Payroll/

          • 

            AlienC on 11/12/2019 - 00:15

            @brad1-8tsi: Cheers thanks man.

            I just got paid and yeah seems my tax is all done already so tax time should be automated hopefully.