Get Ready Guide...
Everything you need to prepare for your Tax Return with Cooper's Accounting
How It Works
Online Tax Return
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Tax Bookings
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Completing Your Tax Return Online...
Once your tax return is complete, we’ll send a copy via email for you to review and sign. Our click to sign system makes this super easy. Together with your return we’ll also send your receipt. Your payment is processed securely prior to lodging your tax return.
Once your return has been lodged the ATO’s processing time is usually 14 business days. If you have a refund they’ll deposit it directly into your bank account. If you have tax to pay they’ll send details of your due date and how to pay.
Once your return has been lodged the ATO’s processing time is usually 14 business days. If you have a refund they’ll deposit it directly into your bank account. If you have tax to pay they’ll send details of your due date and how to pay.
Documents & Information Needed...
Income
- PAYG Payment Summaries
- Private Health Insurance Statement
- Centrelink Income and any other Government Payments (only where a payment summary is issued, Family Tax Benefit and some other payments are not taxable)
- Bank Interest earned for financial year
- Dividends and other investment income received
- Capital Gains – purchase and sale details for any shares, property or other assets sold
- Spouse name, date of birth, and taxable income
Rental Property
- Real Estate Agent’s Annual Statement
- Interest paid on loan for the financial year
- Quality Surveyors Report
- Other Expenses – insurance, council rates, water rates, repairs & maintenance, body corporate
- Depreciation Schedule – if available
- You can download a rental property checklist from our Downloads page
Business or ABN Income
- ABN
- Total of Business Income
- Expenses – we need a total for each category of expenses, (materials, tools, stationery etc).
- The rules for motor vehicle expenses noted below are the same for businesses.
- Prior Year Tax Return – if your tax return last year wasn’t prepared by Cooper's Accounting, and you claimed depreciation or had carried forward losses, please provide a copy of that prior year return and / or Financial report.
Tax Deductions
Receipts or records are required for all deductions, except where we’ve noted that an estimate is allowed. The ATO prefers receipts and tax invoices, but accepts bank statements or other records where a receipt isn’t available. Scanned or digital copies of your physical receipts are acceptable to the ATO. You need to keep your receipts and records for five years.
If you’re sending us your expenses prior to a booking, please just send a list or summary via Email, Word or Excel. If you’re using Online Tax you’ll fill your deductions directly into the Tax form and upload your substantiation via the uploads page.
Receipts or records are required for all deductions, except where we’ve noted that an estimate is allowed. The ATO prefers receipts and tax invoices, but accepts bank statements or other records where a receipt isn’t available. Scanned or digital copies of your physical receipts are acceptable to the ATO. You need to keep your receipts and records for five years.
If you’re sending us your expenses prior to a booking, please just send a list or summary via Email, Word or Excel. If you’re using Online Tax you’ll fill your deductions directly into the Tax form and upload your substantiation via the uploads page.
- Car Deductions
- Cents per Kilometre Method – you can claim 66 cents per km (regardless of engine size) to a maximum of 5,000km of work/ business related travel. This gives a maximum tax deduction of $3,300. If you haven’t kept a logbook this financial year, the cents per km method is your only option. You don’t have to have specific records of your kilometres. Instead you can make a reasonable estimate based on your patterns of work, diary notes etc. Please bring your kilometres you worked out with you to be able to claim.
- Logbook Method – If you have kept a Valid Logbook you’ll be eligible to claim a percentage of your car running costs, including fuel, registration, insurance, servicing, repairs, tyres and other maintenance costs. Please have a summary of these expenses ready. If applicable, you can also claim interest on your car loan (this requires your total interest paid, or copies of loan setup documents), and depreciation on your car (this requires your car purchase date and price).
- Travel, accommodation, parking ( parking at work everyday is not tax deductible).
- Tolls and public transport – you can either add up your receipts for specific trips, or add up your total bills for the year and advise us what percentage is work use
- Uniform and protective clothing
- Union fees, registration fees, professional memberships
- Education, courses and professional development
- Police checks, working with children checks ( not to enable you to get the position)
- Mobile phone and internet – monthly cost and estimated work percentage
- Home office expenses – estimated hours worked from home per week
- Stationery, computer expenses, software, antivirus, apps used for work purposes
- Assets over $300 – iPads, computers, mobile phones etc – purchase date and purchase price of each individual asset required
- Donations
- Tax Agent’s Fees from last year’s tax return
- Income Protection Insurance
Tax Tips For Maximising Your Deductions
- Our list above should give you quite a few ideas of what’s deductible. In addition, the ATO have information on their website about deductions you can claim.
- The ATO also have some great deduction guides for specific occupations explaining what you can and can’t claim. There are guides for teachers, nurses, airline employees, police officers, fitness industry workers, hairdressers, sales reps, hospitality workers and many more. Be sure to check if there’s one for your industry.
- Your bank statements are a great source of information. You may like to print your bank statements or export them to Excel and search through for potential tax deductions. Alternatively, use the search or filter function in your internet banking.
- Flick back through your diary or calendar to remind yourself of courses, seminars or travel expenses.
- Search your email inbox for the words ‘receipt’ and ‘invoice’, you might find purchases you’ve forgotten about.
- If you use your phone or iPad/tablet for work, you may have purchased apps that are tax deductible. Log onto your iTunes or Google Play account and see if you’ve paid for any apps that you use for work.
- Don’t forget about monthly or yearly online subscriptions that you use for work, such as Microsoft Office, Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, Adobe, and your anti-virus.
- If you don’t have one already, create a folder in your email inbox called ‘Tax’, and save all your incoming receipts there ready for next tax time. If you find it hard to hang onto physical receipts, just take a photo on your phone straight away (even while still standing at the checkout!) and email it to yourself to save in your ‘Tax’ inbox folder.