Care with your Tax Return
November 2007

The Australian Tax Office is promoting compliance with tax law through publicity campaigns. The likelihood of getting audited is very small and none of our clients have had a full audit for about 15 years. However, the ATO does receive information from banks by computer tape about the interest paid to the banks' customers and they run this information through their computer. If you expect a large refund of GST, the ATO also asks for more details.

Just like you insure your house against fire, we advise that clients ensure that their returns are prepared accurately and that all contentious issues are documented and substantiated at the time that we prepare the return.

Do not be fooled by the self assessment procedure when your notice of assessment comes back exactly how we estimated. We have recently attempted to handle a number of disputes with the ATO that have been brought to us by new clients and basically, the ATO did not believe the taxpayer as the taxpayer did not have the evidence to substantiate their claim.

The best insurance is to prepare your tax return correctly and carefully, taking into account the possibility that you may be audited. Remember that we act for you and not the ATO and besides ensuring that we have the evidence to cover you in an audit we will still assist you in not paying more tax than is necessary.

Big Brother
February 2008

As your Tax Agent we can access some of the information the ATO has stored on its computer via what is called the Tax Agents Portal. From this financial year interest and dividend income is now available for us to view on this Portal. This information is not complete and can contain errors, therefore clients are advised to keep records of all of their income and provide this when we prepare your income tax return. The ATO portal should only act as a check.