Articles

Question Following on from the recent Q&A titled ‘Reimbursement of ear pod headsets’ (September 2020 TaxEd Update) would you also consider cordless headphones (e.g. Sony Wireless ‘On Ear’ Headphones) to be portable electronic devices and headsets with a microphone (e.g. telephonist style headsets)? These type of headphones and headsets have their own battery and can […]

In the 2020 Federal Budget, eagle-eyed charities and advisers may have noticed that the Federal Government has allocated $2.9 million over three financial years to the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (“ACNC”) to conduct risk reviews of charities. The ACNC has confirmed that it will use this funding to “undertake field-based compliance reviews to assess […]

In a previous article (see September 2020 TaxEd Update re Moffet case) we examined who is an employee for superannuation guarantee (‘SG) purposes, in particular the extent to which contracts for the ‘labour’ of a person cause the person to be an employee of the other party. In the Moffet case a dentist was held […]

In this, our last article of a three-part series focusing on remote area housing concessions, we focus on some of the lesser known and utilised provisions consisting of the following benefits: Remote area property Remote area property expense payment Remote area residential property option fee Remote area residential property repurchase consideration For those who have […]

In part one of this series published last month,  we focused on some fundamental remote area concepts. In this second article in our series covering the various remote area housing exemptions and concessions we will cover the following specific concessions contained in the Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment Act 1986 (‘FBTAA’): Remote area housing loan Remote […]

Question Many of our staff are on the road or work outdoors and they often use their mobile phones as part of their duties. We supply them with mobile phones for this purpose. Some staff have asked if they can salary sacrifice the cost of Bluetooth ear pod type headsets for use with their phones […]

Question With an increasing number of employees working from home we are considering providing a printer for use by the employee whilst at home. The employer will retain ownership of the printer and each printer will cost about $800. In practical terms we expect there will be some private use of the printer and employees […]

Question Can an employee salary package child support payments? Answer The rules regarding salary packaging are set out in Taxation Ruling TR 2001/10 and are summarized on the ATO website (click here) Subject to the usual rules being satisfied regarding what constitutes an ‘effective salary sacrifice agreement’ an employee’s child support obligations can be included […]

It is stated in the ‘Productivity Commission 2020, Remote Area Tax Concessions and Payments, Study Report’ (Feb 2020), that remote Australia accounts for more than 85 per cent of Australia’s landmass but just 2 per cent of Australia’s population. Despite the Government announcing it would not proceed with proposed FBT changes recommended by the Productivity Commission that would have […]

Does a pro forma invoice constitute a tax invoice? And if so, does a pro forma invoice allow an entity to claim GST credits?   Introduction It is not uncommon for businesses supplying goods or services to first issue a pro forma invoice to their clients before any goods or services are provided or agreed […]