Rising Tide Blog

As June 30 approaches a collective sense of panic tends to descend on Australian taxpayers.

Never fear! Rising Tide’s Matt Hale recently spoke to Melbourne’s JoyFM about what you should be doing to get ready for tax season.

Here are his top tips for getting yourself prepared:

1. Collate your receipts and expenses

Don’t leave organising your receipts and expenses to the last minute.  Consider staying on top of this throughout the year by downloading the Expensify app.  Expensify allows you to take pictures of receipts and allocate them to a category (travel, education etc.) as you go.

2. Understand what you can claim

The ATO website is a really great resource for understanding what you can and can’t claim as a tax deduction.  Claimable expenses vary depending on what your occupation is so it’s worth educating yourself.

3. Remember that financial advice or accountant fees are tax deductable

The ATO wants you to seek professional advice when it comes to filing your tax return.  To incentivise you, they’ve made the cost of any advice your receive tax deductable.

4. Concerned about being lumped with a tax debt?  Talk to your accountant now

If you’re worried that you’re going to owe the tax department for this financial year, it’s important to raise this concern with your accountant NOW.  There are things you can do to reduce your taxable income at the last minute such as making a voluntary contribution to your HECS debt or your superannuation fund.

5. Final Advice!

If you do end up scoring a nice little tax refund try and spend it wisely.  It’s fine to put a little aside for a nice dinner out or a weekend away but use the remainder to pay down that credit card debt.