Tax Return Checklist

Tax Return Checklist

We’re over the hump of the worst of winter and slowly creeping our way closer to spring. In central Vic, this means a lot of wet weather but glimpses of the warmth that might come our way soon!

Now that June 30 is over and done with and we’re well into July, a lot of you are starting to think about your tax returns and what you need to get together to give to your accountants.

There’s a whole heap of speculation over what you need to provide and where you get stuff from – so we’ve broken down some of the key points that we get asked a lot to help out.

Please note that sometimes, if you have complex investments and depending on your super fund and investment platform, you may not receive all of your information that you need for your tax return before your lodgment date. If this is the case, let your adviser or your accountant know what you’re waiting on so you can discuss options.

Here’s a checklist with some of the most frequent items we get asked about:

Tax Return Checklist

• Income Protection Premiums. If you pay for income protection insurance that is held outside of super and paid for out of pocket, you may be eligible for a tax deduction. Your insurance company will send you your EOFY statements for this with the amount you can claim anytime from now, for you to pass onto your accountant. If you have an adviser, we may also send them to you as well directly.
• Super Statements. Your 23/24 end of financial year super statements will start to become available between now and December, depending on your fund. They will be sent directly from your super fund or adviser. If you have online access you may also be able to login and download them directly depending on your fund, and don’t forget that a lot of the info flows through to your MyGov account.
• Investments. If you hold shares, managed funds, ETFs or any other similar investment within a trading platform or investment account, you will also receive an EOFY statement. As these rely on each fund manager or share company to provide reporting, they can take a bit longer to come through to you. For example, the SelfWealth platform releases these around the end of July, but some platforms will be as late as September or October.
• Notice of Intent to Claim. If you have made contributions and lodged a Notice of Intent to Claim form, you may want to provide your acknowledgement letter from your super to your accountant. These are usually completed and sent to you within a few weeks of your super contribution being reclassified.
• Advice Fees. There is so much speculation over whether adviser fees are tax deductible, and unfortunately the answer is that at the moment, they aren’t. You may be able to claim deductions for your accountant’s fees and other tax costs, but at the moment, the ATO doesn’t recognise financial advice fees as a deduction.

As always, if you want to chat just give me a ring. You can book directly in with me HERE. There are also a couple of our recent articles HERE which you may not have seen.

Take care and speak soon!

Kris