The Accountants have spoken

Chartered Accountants set record straight after Opposition Leaders ABC interview

I don't recall accounting body asking a politician to apologize.

 

What a joke of an opposition leader. What next, restrictions on financial planning advice? Legal structuring advice?

Obviously if you restrict the advice provided by the professions, you can then go wild on enforcement.

 

Exactly. The tax structure of this country is so complicated that not many people would be brave enough to do their own Tax Return. Super is even worse.

The scary part is this person might become the PM!

 

There's only one way to prevent that from becoming a reality (and it's not stacking the houses full of independents).

 

I think the ATO made some comments about this recently, the error rate for people using registered tax agents was significantly higher than those doing their own tax.
Most of the problems for the industry was people claiming for deductions that they could not substantiate or never even incurred.
Then there were those that also claimed for work related deductions that were private in nature and unrelated to work .
Which came in a big crackdown work related deductions.
Not sure if its individuals trying to defraud the system , registered tax agents not doing their jobs properly or just turning a blind eye , as they know the taxpayer is still responsible, and many taxpayers that think the agent is then responsible .
This year its property investors that are being targeted.
Like any industry there are some really good accountants , lots a average accountants, and a few bad ones.
And the ones that get you the "best refunds" are not necessary the best at their job
.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the...end-short-term-sugar-hit-20180314-p4z4eb.html

 

This can be misleading without further thought. The people who do their own taxes would mostly be quite simple black and white jobs. So there would be less chance for material errors.

Tax agents would have far more complex tax issues to deal with where there would be much more chance of a deduction catching the eye of the ATO. This is becasue they would be dealing with self-employed/company/trust returns which can get complicated.

 

ALP have demonstrated that they have some pretty perverse ideas about what is "fair" when it comes to taxation. Apparently anyone taking home more than median wage must be unfair, even if they are paying multiples more tax than large swathes of this country do.

Hopefully comrade Bill can get in and redistribute all that wealth back to the proletariat.

 

It all depended on how close they sailed close to the wind , and Im not talking about complex issues , but pretty straightforward cases regarding "mum and dad" investors and their expectations on what they could claim and could not claim for.

 

The language of the ALP smells more and more like that of resentment. The conception of what defines fair is based on outcome as a measure of this, but in order to achieve it, they must drag everyone down, especially those pesky hard working, successful people, instead of elevating the population. This is the philosophical position of Socialism.

 

Higher wages without increases in productivity equates to greater inefficiency and lower competitiveness & wages inflation in contrast to stability in wages, lower taxes & greater disposable income.

 

Actually it's not - but not going to go into massive explanation depth yet again on this forum

This thread is smacking of "It's not fair they want to tax my money to pay for the essentials of society"

 

What is considered easy?

I do ours - half a dozen rental properties - primary produce income - industry related work expenses ... the online form is pretty easy to complete and you simply make sure every expense/income has a paper trail and can be proven as legit. No dramas

I suspect those that get into trouble are those who are trying to claim un-provable expenses - which I wouldn't dream of. The ATO scares me more than the Fed Police because they have more power to investigate every orifice.

I do have the SMSF completed by a specialist accountant and auditor (still cheaper than industry fund fees) who keep me on the straight and narrow

 

You are aware that we have a 'self assessment' system in Australia? So just because one does their own returns year after year and doesn't get any negative response from the ATO, it doesn't mean that their returns are without error or under/over claiming deductions.

I'm not saying you are one of these people. But I am saying not being flagged for audit thus far is not an indication that everything is fine and dandy. You are pretty switched on and your returns are probably fine, but you would be the minority.

 

Oops - stand corrected. I hadn't read the article (trying to get some homework done but keep procrastinating) and only went on the replies

To me, tax returns and accountants fees are part of doing business - I know mine cost around $20k in the last two years getting my SMSF back in ATO friendly order after my previous accountant has his wheels fall off (death of wife).

Perhaps personal returns don't need to be tax deductible - but company and SMSF most certainly do.

 

I am a CA. I started my career in tax (saw the light early and moved on over a decade ago haha).

Submitted a return to a Partner for review where I had taken out a few of the more egregious claims because I felt it was unethical AND wrong. The Partner added back in a $9,000 deduction for a gigantic flat screen TV. (The taxpayer was a record company executive and claimed he needed it to watch MTV for research as part of his job). No depreciation, no apportionment, just claimed the lot.

In another instance a part time music teacher took a student to Russia for a piano recital. Claimed the entire three week $16,000 trip as a deduction. Again no apportionment for private expenditure on the non work related aspects of the trip.

Not all accountannts are saints. I don’t mind the profession defending itself when needed, but geez, those, and other instances I saw made me puke.

For those unaware, there is no general s8-1 or common law deduction for cost of managing tax affairs (expenses incurred in generating assessable income). Basically this is because of the obvious point - you don’t pay an accountant to generate income, you pay one to save tax.

It is a statutory provision (s25-5) put in by legislation (not sure when, probably by a politician needing votes), and can be taken away as such.

 

Yep - know someone who works from home and claims items such as a new dining table as "boardroom table" etc.

Doesn't sit well with me