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Your top tax hacks for FY 2026 · The Money Puzzle

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to The Australian's Money Puzzle podcast. I'm
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: James Kirkby. Welcome aboard everybody now. Doctor Adrian Raftery is
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the author of a series of tax books, one hundred
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and one Ways to Save money on your tax legally
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: when I say a number. In fact, he has had
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: sixteen editions of this book. The new edition is out
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: very soon. He's also a fellow at Melbourne University and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: he's been on the show before and I think it
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: is an ideal time of the year to talk to him.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: How are you, Adrian.
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  Speaker 2: I'm very well, James. How are you going?
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Very good? Nice to have you on board. Great to
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  Speaker 1: have someone who's just written a book on this right
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  Speaker 1: up to date. Now you've got one hundred and one
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: ways to save tax I think for the purposes of
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  Speaker 1: our very intelligent, discerning audience, we're going to take a
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  Speaker 1: look at the obvious ways to do this, but also
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  Speaker 1: for you, specially listeners, we're going to look at some
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  Speaker 1: ways that are not as well known, because I think
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  Speaker 1: most of you would know the obvious low hanging fruit.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: But let's start with that anyway, just in case someone
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  Speaker 1: doesn't know. I thought Adrian, we'll probably end up bouncing
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: around here with folks, but let's keep with us the
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  Speaker 1: first one, and we're going to put property entirely to
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  Speaker 1: one side, Okay, and negative gearing and all that. That
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  Speaker 1: is not on the show today because that is for
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  Speaker 1: the property investor. We will deal with that separately. But
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  Speaker 1: for the everyday investor, particularly if you're earning a salary,
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  Speaker 1: I suppose the outstanding, the one big, fat tax genuine
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: tax deduction available to most people is Super. Can you explain, Adrian,
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  Speaker 1: for someone who never did anything in the way of
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  Speaker 1: a voluntary move with Super, what can you do and
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  Speaker 1: what are the terms of the deal? Basically?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, as you said, that's probably one of the
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  Speaker 3: best legitimate tax deductions are out there, the biggest and
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  Speaker 3: the biggest and boldest and brightest. You can put up
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  Speaker 3: to thirty thousand dollars into superannuation each year. Now that
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  Speaker 3: includes your twelve percent employer contributions and then may throughout
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  Speaker 3: the course of the year. So someone maybe earning one
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  Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars would have twelve thousand dollars put into
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  Speaker 3: superannuation automatically by their employer, which means they've got potentially
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  Speaker 3: another eighteen thousand dollars to go from twelve thousand up
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  Speaker 3: to thirty thousand dollars a year into SUPER, and the
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  Speaker 3: tax office will only concessionally pay charge tax it only
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  Speaker 3: on fifteen percent in the dollar instead of being at
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  Speaker 3: your marginal tax rate.
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  Speaker 2: So there's two ways you can go about doing that.
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  Speaker 3: One is ideally you need to do it at the
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  Speaker 3: start of the financial year and so from the first
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  Speaker 3: of July. This would be the method to do would
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  Speaker 3: be if you're working for someone, ask your payroll to
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  Speaker 3: put a little bit extra into SUPER on your behalf
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: of each pay packet. So if you progressively throughout the
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  Speaker 3: course of the whole year two and a half thousand
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  Speaker 3: dollars a month.
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  Speaker 2: Thirty thousand dollars over the course of the whole year,
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  Speaker 2: you reach.
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  Speaker 3: Your limits, I only pay fifteen percent tax on that
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  Speaker 3: Supernovation contribution and serve your marginal tax rate, which can
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: be forty seven percent even forty nine percent if you
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  Speaker 3: don't have Medicare, if you're going to have the Medicare
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: levy surch charge as well.
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  Speaker 2: So that's the first.
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  Speaker 3: Option, but at this time of year, you missed out
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  Speaker 3: in the first nine or ten months in terms of
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  Speaker 3: pay packets.
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  Speaker 2: So you can't put in the two and a half thousand.
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  Speaker 3: If you try and put in two and a half
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  Speaker 3: thousand dollars, now it's only going to be seven, seven
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  Speaker 3: and a half or five thousand dollars that you can
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  Speaker 3: put into Super Extra on top of your employer contributions.
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  Speaker 3: You can actually make it on some contribution yourself out
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  Speaker 3: of your own pockets.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I might just and that's really good, and I
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  Speaker 1: just want to explain to listeners carefully on that one.
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  Speaker 1: So folks, for a long time, you see you, the
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  Speaker 1: way to voluntarily put money into SUPER under the concessional
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  Speaker 1: tax treatment was to do a salary sacrifice. And for
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  Speaker 1: a long time you could only do it through your salary.
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  Speaker 1: Your employer had to do it for you. So as
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  Speaker 1: Adrian's putting it, you know, if you're paid by the month,
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  Speaker 1: whether there's only a month or two left here we
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  Speaker 1: are in April. But more recently, that allowance that you
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  Speaker 1: have that everyone has, that you can just put money
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  Speaker 1: voluntarily into SUPER up to a cap of thirty thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 1: You can do it in one lump sum. How would
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  Speaker 1: you do that? Adrian if the employer said, are a
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  Speaker 1: bit late in the year now, folks, what would you
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  Speaker 1: say to them? You could say, actually, no, I'm not late.
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  Speaker 1: I can still do the entire contribution. How would you
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  Speaker 1: actually do it?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I would just contact your superfund and say, okay,
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  Speaker 2: what is the process for me to make a voluntary
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  Speaker 2: contribution into superer and claim it as a tax reduction.
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  Speaker 2: Do not do the little tip.
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  Speaker 3: Do not lay this until the twenty nine for the
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  Speaker 3: thirty June, because the superfund will be inundated with extra money.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I think they need a month, don't they, Adrian thereabout.
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  Speaker 2: I would allow for a fortnite.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, so well, but if you can do it, if
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  Speaker 3: you can do it in a month, even better, there's
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  Speaker 3: not a concern at all.
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  Speaker 2: Do it today if you want to.
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  Speaker 3: But the key is find out what is the exact way,
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  Speaker 3: exact process for that, how they accept those extra contributions
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  Speaker 3: that you can claim a tax deduction. What will be
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  Speaker 3: is you'll need to let them know that I intend
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  Speaker 3: to make a claim for this contribution to claim and
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  Speaker 3: then my tax return you generally have that will generally
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  Speaker 3: remind you after year end as well how to actually
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  Speaker 3: make do you intend to claim? Yes, I do, so
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  Speaker 3: they then to know, okay, we'll take out fifteen percent
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  Speaker 3: tax on that side. They will notify the ATO. So
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  Speaker 3: when your tax order will actually say, hey, you made
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  Speaker 3: an extra eighteen thousand dollars contribution during the twelve months,
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  Speaker 3: you can claim that in item the twelve in your
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  Speaker 3: tax return.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, it's a beefy it's a beefy deduction.
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  Speaker 1: So I suppose folks's it is the outstanding for the
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  Speaker 1: everyday investor who is on a salary, who doesn't want
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  Speaker 1: to go off and do negative gearing. It's the outstanding
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  Speaker 1: tax break. And this year two things, as agent's seeing,
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  Speaker 1: you can on an ongoing basis obviously to salary sacril,
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  Speaker 1: or you can do a one off contribution and you
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  Speaker 1: can contribute just to repeat that thirty thousand each year.
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  Speaker 1: And on that basis, as Adrian's saying, instead of paying
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  Speaker 1: forty seven percent tax on that, you're going to pay
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  Speaker 1: fifteen anicles into your super or very sweet and nice,
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  Speaker 1: and you can do it in a single contribution if
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  Speaker 1: you wish. And just one more thing, which is worth
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  Speaker 1: knowing from next year that goes to thirty two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and five hundred. That is inflation in dexktop. So okay,
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  Speaker 1: super contributions extra super contributions basically are a great tax deduction.
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  Speaker 1: The downside is you can't get at the money until
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: you retire. But the deed, Now that's the deal, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: One thing I will say though, is if you can
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  Speaker 3: put between your lifetime an extra million dollars into super okay,
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  Speaker 3: you're saving thirty two percent tax potentially three.
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  Speaker 2: Hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Now that means you could
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  Speaker 2: retire earlier if.
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  Speaker 3: You want to, if you are happy listed in the
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  Speaker 3: mounts in terms of affordable lifestyle or have a better lifestyle.
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  Speaker 2: But what you can do is, I may as soon
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  Speaker 2: as you retire you can pay.
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  Speaker 3: Off your homelane instead of actively paying off your homeline,
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  Speaker 3: because you're only saving maybe six percent or seven percent
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  Speaker 3: instead of thirty two percent.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a really big player, a huge play about that.
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  Speaker 1: It is a very good point agent that that to
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  Speaker 1: link it with this fact that people do have. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: everyone's got a mortgage, and everyone's older than they used
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  Speaker 1: to be when they have that mortgage. More people retiring
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  Speaker 1: with a mortgage and it's a way around that. Come
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  Speaker 1: back to that issue another day. I want to get
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  Speaker 1: our listeners across tax hacks for twenty twenty six. And
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  Speaker 1: what we're going to do, folks, as I say, is
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: point out some you might not know and really bring
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  Speaker 1: you up to date on things you can do that
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  Speaker 1: perhaps you couldn't do in the past. All Right. The
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  Speaker 1: second big one, I think, apart from Super, the alternative
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  Speaker 1: in some way. Certainly the people who market this product
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  Speaker 1: would call it an alternative to Super. This alternative tax
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: vehicle is investment bonds, sometimes called education bonds. They are
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: not education bonds. They are nothing to do with education.
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  Speaker 1: They are just investment bonds. But they do have a
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  Speaker 1: tax advantage. A lot of advisors on the show don't
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  Speaker 1: like them, but gee gosh, customers like them. They're selling
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  Speaker 1: like hotcakes out there. Could you tell us what an
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  Speaker 1: investment bond is and how it would be tax effective
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  Speaker 1: for a LISTA.
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  Speaker 3: It's basically a long term savings plan. One term is
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  Speaker 3: really over ten years. We put in a regular amount
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  Speaker 3: every month. Now, I was this was my first investment
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  Speaker 3: when I was twenty years of age.
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  Speaker 1: Weren't you a forward thinker? Well, of course, you were.
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  Speaker 1: You were an academic in the area, so you're a
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  Speaker 1: way ahead anyway.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, well I said she was one of dodgy
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  Speaker 3: financial planners behind but word behind bars anyway. But there
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: was one of the few good things that they did
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  Speaker 3: do for me was to say, hey, put money aside
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  Speaker 3: each month, and that's not May was one hundred and
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  Speaker 3: twenty five dollars a month. That's all I could bought,
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  Speaker 3: and I put it away. And so it's sort of
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  Speaker 3: like regular amounts. Really good for people who are poor
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  Speaker 3: at saving. They can't put money aside and get tempted
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  Speaker 3: very easily. This is a longer term planning. I should
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  Speaker 3: have short term meeting term long term investments. I consider
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  Speaker 3: this ten years as a longer term investment in the
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  Speaker 3: liquid form. So you put it in set aside of
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  Speaker 3: a certain amounts each year, your captain in terms of
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  Speaker 3: how much you can increase.
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  Speaker 2: That by efficably each year. But in essence, over that
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  Speaker 2: ten year period, no different from a bank account. Really,
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  Speaker 2: it's side's earning earnings.
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  Speaker 3: Investment, earnings accumulates, and money well you know that money
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  Speaker 3: makes money, so it keeps on accumulating compounding interests along
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  Speaker 3: the way.
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  Speaker 2: Now, is variable that it is not a sat amount.
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  Speaker 3: It's not going to be two percent, three percent, seven
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  Speaker 3: percent each year.
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  Speaker 2: It does vary in terms of how to provide their product.
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  Speaker 3: Provider actually performs themselves with their investments, but as relatively
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: you know, low risk in terms of what they're investing,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: as I understand it as well, so.
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  Speaker 2: Because they need the liquidity along the lines.
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  Speaker 1: Because the relative becomes through. Well, what's the tax deal?
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  Speaker 3: So if you basically for the first teen years, there's
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: no tax to pay on those investment earnings, and then
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: when you take out the funds after ten years, eleven years,
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  Speaker 3: you can have as long as possible as you want, really,
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  Speaker 3: but when you take it out, there's no tax on
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: those earnings that accumulate over the years. Now that can
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: be a really attractive thing. Now my is I'm certing.
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  Speaker 3: Now there's a lot of people who they say is
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: about it as well? Is well, what is the return?
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  Speaker 3: What is the net return going to be? Okay, it's fine,
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  Speaker 3: it's tax free, but is it four percent? Is it
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: two percent? Is a three percent? So they're the questions
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  Speaker 3: and I can't provide that advice, but that's something that
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: you need to look at. As well to see what
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: is their net returns that they're getting, because maybe it
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: may be better to invest in somewhere that gets ten
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: percents and pay you're forty seven cents and a dollar,
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: so the net returns five point three percents. But it's
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: really crucial that you do take tax into the consideration.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: So I do like it as a post form of saving. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I generally like it, but we also like to look
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  Speaker 3: at what the net return after taxes as well.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Sorry, very good, and that's the point that's actually made
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  Speaker 1: often by advisors. They're all fine investment bonds. You really
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: get the tax advantage when you hang in four to
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: ten years. Ten years is a long time. The second
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: thing is there are fees in there that you wouldn't
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: normally pay, and also their returns because they must be
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: careful in how they invest may not be as good
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: as if you just put the same amount of money
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: in a global ETA for something. But okay, very good point.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: They're too interesting tax hacks. If you like one, you
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: probably know one you may or may not know. We'll
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: be back in a moment. We have a couple of
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: very interesting ones about your daily work and how you
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: can claim on that. Hello, welcome back to The Australian's
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Money Puzzled podcast. James Kirby here with doctor Adrian Raftrie,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: who is the author of a one of the best
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: known taxtbooks in the market and also a fellow at
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Melbourne University, an academic in the area and an advisor.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: His new version of his book one hundred and one
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Ways to Save Your Tax Legally is going to come
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: out after the budget, which is a sensible arrangement. The
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: budget of course coming up in May. Now let's take
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: a look at issues around transport and working at home.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Always interesting but this year obviously, hey, your better costs
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: are probably considerably more than they were last year. So
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: let's just quickly go through the main ones here. The
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: first one is your home office. There's two ways, as
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I understand of claiming on that. There's an off the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: shelf way and there's a detailed way, and the detailed
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: way is more work but more generally more lucrative. Is
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: that still how it goes?
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So the offtor shelf is the fixed rates of
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: seventy cents per hour, so it's just you know, whatever
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: hours do you work throughout the course of the year
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: multiplied by seventy cents.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: You get a tax deduction that way.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: So for those who work, say twenty hours a week
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: from home, probably three days a week, one thousand hours,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: seven hundred dollars as a tax reduction will done. Now
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: with that, though since March of twenty twenty three, ATI
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: says you can't do an estimate. Oh I did three
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: days by six and a half hours, blah blah blah.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Needs to be precise. You need to have a daily log,
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: so it's still a bit of work required for you.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Now I recommend just an Excel spreadsheet three hundred and
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: sixty five days a year and put in six and
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: a half three whatever over the course of the whole year.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Make sure it ties up with your diary, that you're
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: not on holidays, you're not into saints, you're not seeing clients,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: whatever the case may be. So there's the simplest method.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: But as you said there at the start, generally it
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: costs yourself money by just claiming this minimum rate.
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  Speaker 2: It's designed for those who are if you're like lazy
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: in terms of it.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: So you've got intelligent people listening in who want to
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: make it, make the effort and earn a lot more
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: from the tax office, and so use the actual rate method,
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: the actual expenses method. And so if you keep all
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: of your receipts for your home office, so your internet,
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: it's your mobile phone, your consumables, your print, your stationary,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: all of these running your home offers, and claim the
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: work proportion of your internet. So yeah, obviously it's not
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: one hundred percent because you're going to have streaming services
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: at home and other family members are using us as well.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: So do a proportion of that portion of your mobile phone,
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: all these realistic costs and even a portion of your
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: electricity costs, so you can actually go Yeah, you can't
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: clean back and appreciation on office equipment, your tables and
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: chairs and everything else that.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I noticed the carpet in the carpet in my home
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: office is getting seriously worn out from me pacing around
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: talking to people on the phone. Can I claim the
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: appreciation on my carpet.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: EDI, well for that room, for that room, but not
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: for the whole ham. Yeah, but not for the whole
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: hour if you keep the actual expensive method there as well.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: So I thought there was something that the tax office
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: had been ludicrously severe. Was it supposed to be. Is
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: it supposed to be entirely proportionate? Like? Am I not
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: supposed to go in there at weekends or something like that?
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Is that right? Now?
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Well, you're portionate for what your time is spending, Okay?
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Can I so I can claim that that's fair?
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Oh so we're only claiming one hour every three weeks.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: Well no, you know you won't be claiming any of
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: the car for costs.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Let's be honest.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: There and there was a journalist not from the Australian
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: but another large organization in Australia, try to claim ludicrous
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: amounts of home office expensive and try to claim for
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: a portion of mortgage mortgage interest and the line if
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: you can't claim that, well.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: I reckon that journalist was had a case there you are? Okay,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: all right, folks. You can see where I'm coming from.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: That's the home office the car. Now, this is interesting,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: isn't it? Because really sixty seventy percent increase in these costs,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: how does one did with their car costs for work?
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah? So again, like home office, you've got two methods.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: You've got the of the shelf mefford of eighty eight
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: cents per kilometer to a maximum of five thousand kilometers
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: a year, so potentially four deduction. Now, if you're regularly
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: using a car for work, seeing suppliers, seeing customers, whatever
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: the case may be, you're generally going to incur more
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: than four and a half four thousand hundred dollars in
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: running costs, particularly with your petrol and thesel these days
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: as well. So those who wants to sort, yeah, claim
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: the maximum and behind super This is generally the largest
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: tax deduction that people claim is that their car and
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: the ATO. They set their rate of eighty eight cents
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: in this instance twelve months prior.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: So yeah, they haven't adjusted that anything.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: It's no adjustment at all.
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: It all six.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I see, it's crazy.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, this is going to be the biggest deduction
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: for a lot of people this year, just by keeping.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: A logbook for twelve weeks. You can start now. Okay,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: you can start now and do it. Hopefully you've already
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: done it. But it's a matter of just doing that.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: That's a representative example of your whole year's work. But
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: you must keep all of your seats throughout the course
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: of the year.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Three months and multiply it by four.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: No. No, in terms of the expenses.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: No, what I mean if you have the three months
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: of the logbook, what happens to the previous nine?
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Well, what it is just it's supposed to be representing
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: sample of the whole year. So if you work out
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: your logbook to be sixty five percent, then you need
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: to apply sixty five percent of all of your running
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: costs for the year, So which means it keeping all
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: your receipts for the year. So now the big one
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: is going to be petrol. So just having kept that,
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: so a lot of people keep the receipts and the
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: amdlsshoe box and the like as well, and you definitely
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: want to be keeping it now. Repairs and maintenance you
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: have what one or two year, once or twice a year.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: You have your servicing, Your regis once a year, your
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: insurance is once a year, so they're easy to get those.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: And even the depreciation of your car as well, you
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: can exclaim that as well. And you're borrowing, you've got
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: a higher purchase or a loan, you claim that portion
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: of that interest as well. So okay, it's not unreasonable
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: for someone who does more than five thousand kilometers a
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: year anyway, and they do whether it is for be
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: forty fifty sixty eighty ninety percent. It's not unreasonable for
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: me to see someone claimed ten thousand dollars yeah, as
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: a deduction and underd one in their.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Tax and mix.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, I think the essential nugget from that segment, folks
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: was the tax office have it's set at eighty eight
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: cents as you're a petro and that was set for
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: July one last year, and petrol is up sixty percent
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: since then. So really that's the Screamerray, that's the screamer
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: I think in the in the book today. Okay, very quickly,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: you mentioned about higher costs on that the novated lease,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: which sounds awfully complicated, but it's not. It's just a
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: matter of leasing a car and using your employer to
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: do it for you. They fit out a document. It's
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: very easy. I've done it myself when you do the
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: novated lease. Previously, there was an arrangement for it was
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: a little bit. It was kind of semi tax deductible.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: But under the Albanesi government scheme a year or two ago,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: if you if your car is an electric car, it's
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent tax deductible. Hence the extraordinary number of
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: bid youths zipping around the roads because hey, they're one
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: hundred percent deductible. Can you just briefly tell us about that, Adrian.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I guess with Prince benefits tax.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: It was introduced the same day as capital gains tax
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: back in nineteen eighty five, and they tightened it a
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: lot over the years, and in the mid nineties they
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: made it and even at twenty fourteen they made it
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: a lot less intensive for you to actually sell you
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: sacrifice car. But a few years ago when I changed
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: the rules saying hey there's no French benefits tax if
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: you've got an electric vehicle, well, all of a sudden,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: it makes a big difference in terms of, you know,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: is it tax effective versus not. So without doubts, I'm
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: saying that numerous examples where it's being fantastic to have
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: electricity vehicle beying salary sacrifles. Now, for a brief period,
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: you could have a hybrid vehicle in there, but I
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: stopped that in April twenty five, So it must be.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: A folly electric vehicle and so.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: And so, just to explain it to people how it
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: would work is a bit like this. It's a bit
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: it would be effectively in your pay packet a little
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: bit like super contributions in that there'd be a line
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: that takes the amount you all on the lease out
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: prior to tax. Isn't that it basically, and it's one
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: hundred percent deductibles. So it's a beauty if you want
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: an electric car. And the government was under pressure to
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: start taxing it electric cars obviously because those with petrol
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: cars think they have an unfair advantage. But the Prime
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Minister just a few weeks ago said he doesn't plan
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: to change anything in the budget for electric cars for
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the simple reason. I suppose he wants people to switch,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and they have it big in they have a big
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: incentive to switch these days with the outlook for petro
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: not just today or tomorrow. Okay, terrific. Now we will
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: take a short break. Stay with us. We're going to
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: look at a couple of other things you may not
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: know that will allow you to optimize your tax in
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, and now is the time to do it.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: This is April. You've got what have you got? Twelve weeks?
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Ten weeks, that's the time. Back in a minute, Hello,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Australian's Money Puzzle podcast. James Kirby
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: here with doctor Adrian Raftri. We are doing your taxes
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: for you. Okay, now you've got your home office, You've
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: considered an ev, you've really thought about the fact that
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the tax office seemed to forget that Petro prices went
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: through the roof this year. We know a little bit
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: about investment bonds, should you wish to examine them at
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: least and we talked at the start about the sort
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: of obvious part of the big fat obvious tax deduction
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: in super in the system which is related to super
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: and that's contributions as you go. But Adrian wants to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: bring something to your attention that you may not know,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: which is called catch up contributions. Now, this is where
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: let's say you never did volunteer super contributions before, or
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: your partner never did them. You can actually go back
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and say I never did them this year or last
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: year or the year before, and I can put them
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: all together. Should you be fortunate enough to have enough
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: money to do that? Can you explain the basics of
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the catch up contributions? Adrian?
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I really like this.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: People may have had some windfall gains in a particular year.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: So it could be a solder investment property sold some shares,
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: or crypto made a lot of money, and they've got
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: a tax situation. They need a really quick fix, and
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: the quick fix is putting extra money into super provided
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: at the start of last year versus July last year,
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: your super balance was under five hundred thousand dollars.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: If it was, you can catch up on that.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: Threshold, which is thirty thirty thousand dollars this year.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: You can catch up that threshold from the last five years.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: So five years ago it was a lower rate of
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: twenty five thousand, trees in between was twenty seven.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: And a half thousand. The year before was thirty thousand.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: So potentially if you put no money into super over
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: the last five years and you have less five hundred thousand,
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: and this is what trade is out there. You know
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: who run their own businesses who may not have done
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: so one hundred and thirty seven thousand, five hundred dollars
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: you could potentially put in and is as a game
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: changer in terms of and it's your money, it's going
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: to your super fund.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: You can have your control as much as you want.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: As world worse you do get.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: On the same terms. It's just it's just allow you.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: They allow you to package it up or to collect
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: it all five years worth, or an inheritance or something
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: where you have this opportunity that you may not have
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: very often that you have a redundancy. For instance, and
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: you had this money and you said, super, I don't
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: have enough. I don't have as much in it as
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: i'd like. I see that the limit paranamus is thirty
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars, but in fact I can put in nearly
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty. If I put five years worth,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: that's it, right.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: But there's actually more with even with dishes thirty thousand
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: as well, So I it come one hundred and sixty
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: seven thousand. Oh, I see as well. You can get
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: six years web Soper.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Oh you do five years, You can do five years
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: plus the plus any you can just do it for
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the current year. Ah, very good. Okay, well that's something
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. There.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: You go.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Keep that one right. Take a note of that, folks.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: We're not saying which we should start. When we talked
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: about this before the show, when Adrian was corresponding with me,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: he mentioned one thing which I should have mentioned keep
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: your receipts. I preserve. That's much easier than it used
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: to be, is it, Adrian Won't People used to have
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: boxes and bits of paper in them.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look at it's the ATS motto is no receipt,
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: no tax reduction basically.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: So one of the things I find really great is
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: the ATO.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: I got an app called my Deductions with when there
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: at Simply when you get a receipt scan.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: It.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Put a fewel notes follow the way, victories followed the
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: way for you at the until the end of the year.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: You can download that from the A t O and
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: it can know and if you're detailed enough, it can
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: go right into your particular area of your tax return.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: So it was other related expenses in the light. It
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: is a lot easier these days. We get a lot
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: of a lot of transactions happened by an email and
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: until you can save the popleps as well. I don't
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: care what record keeping system that you do have, so
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: long as advice say, hey, can you find this particular receipt,
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: you can find it within five minutes.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: If you can find it within five minutes, it's a
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: good system.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really important because my accountant's eyes are struggling
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: a lot more now reading those the thermal receipts that
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: are like two years old, because a lot of times
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: we don't get the someone to incurred an expense on
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: the first of July twenty twenty four, and I'm looking
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: at those receipts right now to the twenty five takes return.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: They do fade.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: So if you can get discipline and you can scan it,
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: store it, save it, whatever system that you use, is
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: absolutely fantastic, really good time of this year. The last
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: ten weeks of this financial year is just to a
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: stock taker boy expenses, put it on an nextel spreadsheet.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Or whether the case may be.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: So you just sort of keep an eye and keep
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: a track of how your game for this upcoming year
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, I suppose one thing about current technology is there's
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: almost no receipts. You can't guess really I went, you know,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I've got I dug up receipts from overseas perfect for instance,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: that I that I might have made and what's upunderstand
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: that would have been next to impossible. So there's very
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: you can't get, folks, if you do the work and
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: if you for every receipt you find, you get a deduction,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: you're making money. Okay, terrific. That was so good, Very
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: good to talk to you, Adrian, Thank you very much
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: for coming on the show.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: What pleasure. James and I hope we help someone out
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: there with just even a little bit. Say we've been
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: a tax i.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Remember tax planning is a three hundred and sixty five
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: day exercise, not just one or two days a year.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: So yes, plan every day.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: Playing as much on the first of July as you
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: do on the twenty nine and thirty Perjens.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Good luck, very good, very good. Okay, folks, we won't
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: do questions this week. I wanted to just concentrate on
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: that I am collecting them. Do keep them coming the
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: money Puzzle at the Australian dot com dot Au. Today's
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: show was produced by the Isami Glup. Talk to you
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: very soon.