Latest news with #ATO
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
ATO warning for nearly one million Aussies after major change: 'Significant amount'
Australians who have taken up a side hustle in the last 12 months are being warned they could soon have a tax bill on their hands. The latest data shows nearly one million people have more than one job, and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has already said it will pay very close attention to them. If you've been doing some Uber Eats delivery, OnlyFans content, or e-commerce selling on the side, you could get a 'shock' after July 1. CPA Australia tax lead Jenny Wong said this could be huge for some people. 'Until this year, individuals have been required to self-declare the income from their side hustles," she said. "Now nothing will go under the radar." $1537 tax warning as Aussies get ready to submit returns Centrelink age pension changes coming into effect from July 1 Rare 10 cent coin worth up to 70 times more due to tiny detail The Sharing Economy Reporting Regime has been expanded, and it means any company you make money from, be it Airtasker, Doordash, or YouTube, will report that income to the ATO. The tax office will have a much wider understanding of your income than ever before. "These rules apply to a broad range of services, not just the most well-known," Wong said. "If you use a website to rent out a car parking space or your designer handbag, this income will be recorded, and you'll need to pay tax.'Wong predicted influencers and X-rated content creators could be in for the biggest tax bills because of the enormous amount of money they can make. These creators have been reminded that they have to declare any gifts or gratuities they received been July 1 to June 30 as a form of payment. You have to start paying tax for anything earned over $18,200. "If you've had a successful year earning money through advertising revenue and streaming subscriptions, as well as through gifts and gratuities, the ATO will be expecting you to cough up," Wong said. "Yes, this even includes free cars, holidays, clothes and anything else you're lucky enough to receive as a form of payment. 'Depending on how much you've earned during the year, this could be a significant amount, maybe even tens of thousands of dollars.' Yahoo Finance contributor and director of tax communications at H&R Block, Mark Chapman, said many people haven't been properly declaring their extra cash from their side hustles. "You might think your side hustle is just a hobby but the ATO will disagree," he said. Even if you do the odd job here and there that generates tens to a few hundred dollars, it still needs to be declared. He warned those renting out properties, or even part of one, through platforms like Airbnb or Stayz, the ATO will be on your case. "The ATO has numerous third-party sources of data which it can use to identify if you are receiving rent and they are on the lookout for mismatches with the tax return data that you report," Chapman said. But the ATO said having a side hustle isn't all bad news. "Each source of income you have will have different deductions available to you, depending on the nature of the income and your occupation," it said. You can find a list of all the deductions related to different jobs, side hustles, and income-producing hobbies here.
Canberra Times
5 hours ago
- Business
- Canberra Times
Do you have $3 million in super? Me neither. These changes will actually help you
Do you have $3 million in super? Me neither. It is estimated that the changes will only impact a tiny fraction of the Australian population, around 80,000 people. That's fewer people than can fit in the MCG. In fact, 99.5 per cent of Australians currently do not have more than $3 million in super. According to ATO data, the average super balance is a mere $182,000 for men and $146,000 for women. Greg Jericho, chief economist at the Australia Institute, crunched the numbers and found that around 97 per cent of people currently in the labour force will never have $3 million in superannuation, no matter how hard they work for their entire lives. Even if a young person works their entire life on the full-time average wage, with no time out of the workforce for kids or illness, they will never accumulate $3 million in super. Not surprising when you consider the median super balance for women aged 60-64 is less than $160,000, meaning half of Australian women have less super than that (half of Australian men the same age have just $211,996 or less).
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Atmos Energy Stock Outperforming the Dow?
Dallas, Texas-based Atmos Energy Corporation (ATO) distributes natural gas. With a market cap of $24.2 billion, the company provides natural gas marketing and procurement services to large customers, as well as manages storage and pipeline assets. Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as 'large-cap stocks,' and ATO perfectly fits that description, with its market cap exceeding this mark, underscoring its size, influence, and dominance within the regulated gas utilities industry. ATO's financial strength stems from operational efficiency, strategic rate management, and infrastructure investments, positioning it for continued financial success and customer service excellence. Forecasts for Sweltering US Heat Lift Nat-Gas Prices Middle East Jitters Underpin Crude Prices Crude Prices Fall on Hopes the Israel-Iran Conflict Will De-Escalate Get exclusive insights with the FREE Barchart Brief newsletter. Subscribe now for quick, incisive midday market analysis you won't find anywhere else. Despite its notable strength, ATO shares have slipped 9% from their 52-week high of $167.45, achieved on May 8. Over the past three months, ATO stock has gained 1.2%, underperforming the Dow Jones Industrials Average's ($DOWI) 1.4% gains during the same time frame. In the longer term, shares of ATO rose 9.4% on a YTD basis and climbed 30.3% over the past 52 weeks, outperforming DOWI's YTD marginal losses and 8.6% returns over the last year. To confirm the bullish trend, ATO has been trading above its 200-day moving average over the past year, with minor fluctuations. However, the stock is trading below its 50-day moving average since late May. On May 7, ATO shares closed up marginally after reporting its Q2 results. Its EPS of $3.03 beat Wall Street expectations of $2.92. The company's revenue stood at $2 billion, up 18.4% year over year. ATO expects full-year EPS to be between $7.20 and $7.30. ATO's rival, Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (SWX) shares lagged behind the stock, with a 4.6% uptick on a YTD basis and a marginal loss over the past 52 weeks. Wall Street analysts are moderately bullish on ATO's prospects. The stock has a consensus 'Moderate Buy' rating from the 14 analysts covering it, and the mean price target of $162.36 suggests a potential upside of 6.5% from current price levels. On the date of publication, Neha Panjwani did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on
NDTV
2 days ago
- Business
- NDTV
Australian Taxation Office Issues 2025 Tax Return Guidelines
Sydney: Soon, more than 15 million Australians should be lodging a tax return with the Australian Taxation Office in the hope of receiving at least a small refund. About 60% of taxpayers use an accountant to prepare their tax return while the other 40% lodge their returns via their MyGov account. This links them to the tax office, Medicare and other government services. The tax office receives about 1000 tip-offs a week from people who know or suspect evasion. Of these, the office deems about 90% warrant further investigation. What to remember when preparing your tax return These days, the tax office prefills much of your income information. The ATO will let you know through your MyGov account when your income statements from your employer are 'tax ready'. But other income including bank interest, dividends and managed investment funds distributions may take longer to appear, so don't rush to complete and lodge your tax return on July 1 if these aren't there. When these items prefill, check them for accuracy and correct any errors. The tax office does not know about all your income so remember to provide details of other sources including capital gains on investments and income from other jobs for which you have an Australian Business Number. Some items, such as private health insurance information, are only partially pre-filled so be sure to check that all questions have been answered and all necessary information provided. How to claim deductions To claim a deduction you must have spent the money yourself and were not reimbursed from another source. The expense must be directly related to earning your income from either employment or services provided, from investments such as shares or a rental property, or from a business you operate. And you must have a record to prove your expense. This usually needs to be in the form of a receipt or a diary. If you don't know how to record your deductions, an easy option is to use the tax office myDeductions app. You can scan receipts and allocate them to the correct section of your return. What the tax office will be looking for in 2025 Each year the tax office targets particular areas. For 2025, these are: Working from home expenses: you can choose between two methods: the fixed rate method or the actual cost method. The fixed rate method allows you to claim 70 cents for each hour worked from home during the year. You do not need to keep receipts, but you must keep a record of the hours worked at home. The actual cost method allows you to claim the costs of working from home, but taxpayers must have a dedicated room set aside for the office and remove all private use. You cannot claim personal items like interest on a home loan or rent expenses unless you are operating a business from home. Personal items, such as coffee machines, are not claimable even if you use them while working from home. Mobile phone and internet costs are included in the 70 cents per hour fixed rate. The ATO will be looking for taxpayers who claim these twice – for example, on their return and from their employer. The 70 cents per hour rate does not include depreciation of work-related technology and office furniture, cleaning of the home office and repairs to these items. So these amounts can be claimed separately. Motor vehicle expenses: there are also two methods to work out this claim. The log book method requires you to have kept a record for 12 weeks. You then need to work out the percentage you used your car for work or business which is applied to your expenses. The cents per kilometre method allows you to claim 88 cents for each kilometre up to 5,000 km of work or business travel. No receipts need to be kept for this method, but you must be able to justify the total kilometres that you have claimed. If you use the cents per kilometre method, do not double dip by claiming additional motor vehicle expenses. Rental properties: make sure the expenses you claim do not include your personal costs. For example, the interest expenses must only be for the rental property and not interest from your personal home. Also, if you own 50% of the rental you can only claim 50% of the expenses, even if your taxable income is higher than the other owner. If you have a holiday home you can only claim expenses for when that home was rented out, not the whole year. Cryptocurrency: many taxpayers are buying and selling cryptocurrency. These transactions need to be reported in your tax return when they are sold as a capital gain or capital loss. Other forms of income: if you earn money through the sharing or gig economies, you must include all income from these activities in your return. If you sell goods online, the tax office may consider it to be a business, and it will expect the income to be declared. Don't be tempted to cheat The ATO already knows a lot about your tax situation, which makes it harder than ever to cheat. The tax office uses data matching to check information you include in your return against data provided by other parties including share registries and your health insurer. It also gathers information from the internet. If the data doesn't match your return, or your claim is considered excessive, the ATO may contact you. You may be asked to explain why and, if your explanation is unsatisfactory, you might be audited. Penalties of 25% to 75% of the tax owed may apply for falsely claiming deductions. The more dishonest the claim, the higher the penalty). The link between what you claim and what you earn has to be real. So do not claim the cost of your Armani suit as a work uniform or your pet as a mascot for your business. Even the cost of a massage chair to relieve work stress cannot be claimed. Dubious claims received by the tax office in recent years are many and varied. They have included Lego, school uniforms and sporting equipment purchased for kids, $9000 worth of wine bought by a wine expert while on a European holiday, for personal consumption, and a claim using receipts lodged by a doctor for an overseas conference he didn't attend. What if I make a mistake or the ATO finds an error? If you make a mistake in your tax return, you can always amend it via MyTax. The tax office will not fine you unless you did not take reasonable care, but you will have to pay back the shortfall in tax. The due date to lodge your own return is October 31. If you are having trouble meeting this date, contact the tax office and ask for an extension. Disclaimer: this is general information only and not to be taken as financial or tax advice. (Authors: Robert B Whait, Senior Lecturer in Taxation Law, University of South Australia and Connie Vitale, Senior lecturer tax and accounting, Western Sydney University) (Disclosure statement: Robert B Whait receives funding from the Federal Government as part of the National Tax Clinic Program, Financial Literacy Australia (now Ecstra Foundation), ANZ Bank, and the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC). He is affiliated with the Tax Institute of Australia and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. Connie Vitale receives funding from the Federal Government as part of the National Tax Clinic Program. She is affiliated with the Institute of Public Accountants and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.)
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Tax rule that could make you $36,650 every year: 'Missing out'
When most people hear 'negative gearing' it's common for them to switch off or think it's only for the super-rich. But this one strategy can make the difference between staying stuck and building serious wealth — not just because of the tax savings, but also because it can be the key to getting into the property market in the first place. With property prices rising, and these price increases accelerating way faster than inflation, getting into the property market, or getting ahead with property investing is getting harder by the day. But the longer you wait, the further behind you actually fall. If you're making a decent income and you're not using negative gearing today, you're essentially missing out on one of the smartest ways to reduce your tax and turn the ATO into your silent investing partner. In this piece, I cover what negative gearing is, how it works, and why it matters today more than ever. RELATED ATO capital gains tax warning as Aussies caught doing the wrong thing: 'Focus area' $1,000 ATO school fees tax deduction that Aussies don't realise they can claim Centrelink age pension changes coming into effect from July 1 Negative gearing is something that happens almost magically when the cost of owning an investment property (i.e. the loan interest and property expenses) is higher than the rental income you receive. In this case, your investment is essentially running at a loss — but the kicker is that you can claim that cost as a full tax deduction against your other taxable income (for example your employment salary). Let me lay this out with an example. You own an investment property worth $750,000 that costs you $50,000 each year in mortgage interest, strata, maintenance, etc, but you earn $30,000 annually in rental income. The difference is a $20,000 net loss, which you then use to reduce your taxable income. On the top marginal tax rate of 47 per cent, this $20,000 loss results in a $9,400 tax refund. That's pretty much half of the cost back just for owning a property that's going up in value anyway. And while it might seem a little scary to be running your investment at a loss, the income of your investment is only one part of the equation — the other is growth. Based on the long term Australian property growth rate of 6.3 per cent, your $750,000 property would be increasing in value on average by around $47,250 each year. The maths is solid on this one, you're paying $10,600 each year to get a gain of $47,250, meaning the net benefit to you is $36,650 each year. In this case, what you're really doing is swapping short term cashflow for long term growth — with the ATO footing part of the bill. The tax benefits of negative gearing are substantial, but there's an even bigger benefit from putting this into place — and it's getting you into the property market or securing your next property sooner. Australia's property market is increasing at an increasing pace, where over the last five years the median property value has increased by 38.4 per cent, adding over $227,000 to the value of the average property. This means that property values are effectively increasing by $3,775 every single month, making it hard to keep up — let alone get in front. If you're trying to save for a property deposit, you're losing ground with every month that goes past — and if you're waiting for interest rates to drop further, or the property market to 'settle down', you might be waiting forever. Negative gearing can help you get into the property market sooner, because it makes holding a property more affordable, which in turn increases your ability to borrow from the bank. And as you can see from the example in the previous section, once you get this strategy in place, the net benefit to you is in the tens of thousands each year. This strategy definitely isn't something for everyone, but where there's a fit it can work very effectively. For this to fit for you, you'll need to have enough spare cash to fund the cashflow cost of holding the property. You'll also need some funds for your deposit, or equity you can use through a family guarantee type loan. The final piece is that you need the ability to hold your property investment for 7-10 years or more, to give your investment time to benefit from a full property market cycle. If you go down this path, it almost goes without saying — but just to say it, choosing a quality property that will be a good long term investment is critical, as is managing your borrowing risk. If you're covering a cashflow burn in the short term, you need to make sure you're benefiting from the value growth on the other side. If you're not, you're just paying money to hold an asset that's not growing, which is a bit of a financial disaster. It's important you do your research and get some good advice before you jump into the property. Most people think that waiting to buy property gives you more time to save, but in Australia's property market today that delay can be seriously costly. If a $750,000 property grows at the 6.3 per cent long term average, after one year it's increased by $47,250 to $797,250. That means you'll then need to borrow an extra $11,250, save an extra $7,500 for your deposit, and potentially even fund a higher LMI premium. And on top, you miss out on the $9,400 in tax refunds from negative gearing. That means the total extra cost of waiting a year is over $75,000, and you often only realise after it's too late. Negative gearing isn't about just trying to dodge tax, it's about using the rules to your advantage and playing the long game, smarter. Even if you're earning good money, it can be hard to keep up — let alone get ahead, unless you know how to make your money work for you. Negative gearing allows you to get into the property market sooner, cut your tax bill, build your investment assets, and stay ahead of rising property prices. If you're sitting on the sidelines waiting for the right time, you should know that every year you wait could be costing you. Ben Nash is a finance expert commentator, podcaster, financial adviser and founder of Pivot Wealth. Ben's new book, Virgin Millionaire; the step-by-step guide to your first million and beyond is out now on Amazon | Audiobook. If you want some help with your money and investing, you can book a call with Pivot Wealth here. Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is general in nature and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Therefore, you should consider whether the information is appropriate to your circumstances before acting on it, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a finance in to access your portfolio
