The past few years have seen lockdowns, uncertainty for business owners and their employees and the reliance on support packages from the government designed to keep the economy going.
The pandemic has completely shifted the way that we needed to operate and many businesses are slow to revert back to the way things once were.
As a result, there have been a few lines blurred in many areas of business operation. Some staff have continued to work from home, your business might operate more in the world wide web than it did before or you could be working more prominently in a sharing economy platform, Uber Eats for example.
When it comes to doing your taxes however, this can get a little tricky. The ATO has put out a warning for business owners to get these things right as you do your taxes for 2022.
Specifically, the ATO will be cracking down on those claiming for deductions that are private expenses, those who have not declared all of their business income and those who do not have sufficient records.
- Deductions that are private.
Have a talk with one of our competent team members here at YBM to help you segregate any private and business expenses if you’re having difficulty determining this post-pandemic.
You can claim back certain percentages of some expenses when working from home if you retain the correct records, for example.
- Leaving out business income
The pandemic has forced many businesses to think creatively and this means selling in more places. Ensure that you are declaring all those different sources of income in order to be compliant.
- Record keeping
You need to make sure that you have sufficient records to substantiate any of the claims that you are making. You also need to be able to rationalise your decisions on how you have split up any private and business expenses.
There are some great digital systems available that are designed to help you be more compliant with your tax. For example, the ATO app is very useful.
Otherwise our team here at YBM can recommend a range of tools and resources that will help you to get on top of your record keeping. There is no question that those people who have effective digital systems to hand are more likely to keep better quality records which will make tax time that much easier.
Please click here to contact our team at YBM to discuss personal and work expenses, correctly identify those that need to be disclosed in your tax return and determine the best tools to record these going forwards.