Tax time is fast approaching! I can hear the dreaded moans already. In Australia, July 1 each year is the beginning of a new financial year. It is the beginning of tax time. Stress levels increase and there is suddenly a mad rush to contact your accountant.

The tax landscape has changed since the last July 1, 2015. Certain deductions can no longer be claimed. Other deduction allowances have decreased and the Australian Tax Office have become a lot more stricter with substantiation. For example, the medical expenses offset. The Australian Tax Office began to slow the amount of tax payers claiming out of pocket medical expenses since 2011. The rule was, if you did not claim out of pocket medical expense in your 2011 tax return, you lost the privilege to claim in future years. Now, the 2016/2017 year is the final year you can claim the medical offset irrespective of your previous claims. The Australian Tax Office is scrapping it all together.

Motor vehicle expenses have also changed. The old cents per kilometer method used to allow the average tax payer to claim 76 cents per km for business use of your personal car. From July 1, 2015 this changed to 66 cents. Not really worth claiming considering petrol is above $1.30 a litre. Therefor accountants will tell you to keep a logbook to maximize your motor vehicle claim.

Home office expense have also taken a slight hit. The Australian Tax Office is becoming a lot more strict and are expecting more substantiation. If a taxpayer claims home office in their tax return, written documentation is now needed. Invoices for stationary, ink, light and power for home office, will all need to be proven.

Finally the biggest change is the prefill report given to your accountant. A pre fill report is a list of income and expenses the government has gathered from participating organizations such banks, private health insurers, share trading platforms and previous tax returns. The biggest change accounytants or in our case, Dandenong accountant will find are the share movements. With the legislation that allows the Australian Tax Office to gather information on taxpayers, information sharing is more common. Not only more common, but more detail. The Australian Tax Office now has details of the amount of shares sold, what date and which shares. Therefore making Capital Gain Tax events more likely to be audited.

Tax returns Dandenong is just our saying. But if you take note of the above areas of interest, you have no excuse if your substantiation does not meet strict Australian Tax Office guidelines. We have given you areas you need to be cautious about. The above changes mean the ATO are watching. Good luck this year!!