The old way of doing taxes was to sit down at your table and struggle with the maths and forms and numbers for hours or take them to a tax agent, which was a lot more knowlegable than you and hopefully didn’t struggle with maths as much. But now we have the wonderful world of e-lodging avaliable to us, which allows us to avoid both maths and wearing pants while lodging our tax returns.
But does a tax agent have some advantages I’m not considering? Read the rest of this entry »
Some experts think that making mistakes in the best way to learn and it makes sense. If you screw up a report at your job and get yelled at, you’re not going to repeat that mistakes. But sometimes mistakes are too risky. Take your ATO tax returns, for example: would you want to make a mistake on them and risk your refund? Of course not!
Fortunately, most common ATO tax returns mistakes can be caught by double checking everything and going over this simple list before you lodge: Read the rest of this entry »
Being a tax agent at parties usually means you get one of the following reactions: someone will complain about tax agents, someone will say your job is boring, and everyone else will badger you with questions. Ah, the joys of working in a highly specialised field!
In order to get down on the questions I get asked when I’m trying to drink, here are some of the most common asked questions I get about ATO tax returns. And, if you have any of your own, feel free to ask me! The more I tackle now, the less I have to tackle at weddings. Read the rest of this entry »
This year the ATO took an especially long time to dole out refunds. While this is true many years, the delay was so bad that they ATO actually put up a progress and information page on the website (found here). While the money has mostly been handed out, a lot of taxpayers are wondering what caused the issue–and what can be done to prevent it in the future. And the answer comes down to tax file numbers.
For those who somehow lodge taxes but don’t know this, your tax file number is how the ATO tracks you down and makes sure you’re paying (or receiving) the correct amount. It’s probably the most important part of your tax return and it’s why the system was so slow this year. Read the rest of this entry »
For too many Australians, lodging taxes is more of a chore than it needs to be, because they choose to lodge taxes by hand instead of using an e tax service. Some of those people–like the elderly–are just not computer savvy. But others don’t lodge online because they don’t understand how safe, fast, and efficient it is!
E tax lodging not only makes tax time go by a lot quicker, but it also has other added benefits, such as: Read the rest of this entry »
Still waiting for you refunds from the ATO? Wondering how long it takes to actually get some ATO tax back? Well, at least this year, the ATO has an excuse for why tax refunds are taking so long and why so many people are having to wait to get their tax back.
They say it’s the new organizational system they put into place to process the e-lodged returns. The way the sorting is done has caused some hiccups in recent months, which has caused back-log, which has caused a lot of us tax payers to sit on our thumbs while we wait for that ATO tax refund we were promised months ago.
However, at this point they have largely caught up with return processing. This means if you haven’t heard from any people at an ATO tax office, your return could have been flagged for some issues. These range from simple mistakes like the wrong date of birth, forgetting to fill out a page, or giving the incorrect bank number to much larger issues like fraudulent claims.
In fact, a lot of the ATO tax returns this year contained a fraud–over 25,000 with $113 million dollars of fraud total. This fraud could be intentional or a huge mistake on either the part of the tax lodger or the tax agent. If you suspect that your refund is being help because your ATO tax lodgement was fraudulent, the best thing to do is contact either the ATO or your tax agent. Hopefully it can all be sorted out in short order from there.
As a final note, if your ATO tax return was prepared by someone else and found to be fraudulent, I suggest you get a new tax agent as soon as possible. No one should wait for a refund longer than necessary and no one should risk their money or credit because of a poor provider. Research your tax agent and make sure they’re reputable before lodging next year and ditch ‘em if they got you implicated in fraud!
If you recently traveled to Australia you probably bought a lot of stuff. One of the joys of visiting a place is being able to experience new things and take them home to share or give to people. And if you’ve recently travelled—especially to Australia—you’ve probably spent a lot of money on taxes. Like most people, you’d probably like a chance to get tax back, if you can.
Fortunately we here in Australia have an easy, efficient system for you to get tax back.
Read the rest of this entry »
If you’ve already lodged your taxes, you might be anxiously wondering when your tax refund is going to get in your mailbox. After all, you’ve gone through all the effort to fill out the government’s paperwork: the least they can do is make sure you get your money as quickly as possible.
Well, if you’re desperate for that tax refund to arrive as soon as humanely possible (or if you’re just wondering when it will get to you), here’s what to do: Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re like most of us, you don’t have loads of time. Between work or school, friends and family, hobbies and sleep, we can’t spend a lot of time on most things. And we especially can’t spend a lot of time on our taxes. We want to be in and out as fast as possible. So when doing our ATO tax return, we have to wonder: just how long is it going to take?
Like with most things tax related, it varies.
Read the rest of this entry »
In this global age, taxes have become a lot more complicated than they used to be. Where people once filed in one’s country and in one state/province/territory, people now spread all over the globe to work (or work from home for people all over the world) while maintaining residency in another country. Throw in study abroad programs and you have lots of confusion.
So do you lodge your Australian tax forms if you live abroad?
Read the rest of this entry »
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