If you earned income between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023, you have until 31 October to lodge your tax return.
Here are our top tax return tips:
1. Identify all your income
Common types of income that must be declared include:
- Income from your work as an employee or contractor, including any tips
- investment income (including interest, dividends, rent and capital gains)
- government payments
- super pensions and annuities
- income from the sharing economy e.g. Airbnb
- compensation and insurance payments
- foreign income
2. Claim your tax deductions
Tax deductions can help to reduce your taxable income. Common deductions include:
Working from home deductions
If you are planning to claim working from home expenses in your 2022-23 tax return, the way you calculate your deduction has changed.
You can no longer use the Shortcut Method to calculate your deduction.
For 2022-23, you can calculate your working from home deduction using either the updated Fixed Rate Method or the Actual Cost Method. More detail can be found in our WFH Deduction Changes blog.
Work related expenses
To claim a deduction for work-related expenses:
- you must have spent the money yourself and weren’t reimbursed
- the expense must be directly related to earning your income
- you must have a record to prove it (usually a receipt)
If the expense was for both work and private purposes, you can only claim a deduction for the work-related portion. Here are some common work-related expenses you may be able to claim.
- Car and travel
- Clothing and uniforms
- Self education
- Tools and other equipment
- Professional associations, magazine subscriptions and trade union fees
- ATO Summary of Record Keeping for Work Related Expenses
Other expenses
Some other items you can claim include:
- the cost of managing your tax affairs
- income protection insurance (if it is not paid through your super fund)
- personal super contributions you paid to your super fund
- gifts and donations to organisations that are endorsed by the ATO as deductible gift recipients
Investment expenses
You may be able to claim the cost of earning interest, dividends or other investment income. Examples include:
- interest charged on money borrowed to invest
- investment property expenses
- investing in magazines and subscriptions
- money you paid for investment advice
3. Keeping records
It’s important to keep records proving payments you received, expenses incurred and how you calculated your claims.
A comprehensive guide to record keeping can be found on the ATO website.
More Information
There is further information in some of our previous blogs:
Other resources
- MoneySmart Income Tax Calculator
The Tax Calculator helps you work out:- how much Australian income tax you should be paying
- what your take home salary will be when tax and the Medicare levy are removed
- your marginal tax rate
- MoneySmart Income Tax Calculator
Any questions?
If you have questions or need any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us on 9886 0800 or via email.
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Disclaimer: The information contained is general in nature. Professional advice should be sought before acting on any aspect on this page. Financial planning services provided by TAG Financial Advisors Pty Ltd (ABN 77 154 205 017 AFSL 415632), a wholly owned subsidiary of TAG Financial Services Pty Ltd (ABN 67 075 374 686). Copyright 2023. Please do not reproduce without the expressed written consent of the author.