If you do not list your spouse, or directly declare the maximum "receipt-free" deduction, or forget to update your personal information, they are on the list of the top 10 minefields listed by the Australian Inland Revenue Authority this year.
Russell (Liz Russell), Etax.com.au 's senior tax representative, said their tax rebates could be delayed, or face fines and interest charges, if they make these mistakes.
Early filers, he says, are more likely to be caught than those who are ready to wait a month. They want to get a tax rebate early, and they wait for the refund so they don't take time to confirm the information. But when ATO checks and finds a lack of PAYG, they end up getting a ticket.
At the end of the tax season, Russell says, people often forget that they have a part-time job.
"sometimes they have hobbies like Uber or Airtasker, and they don't think they need to include them, but it's wrong."
At the same time, the ATO revealed a personal "income tax gap" of almost 3.5 times that of a large company, equivalent to an average of 906 yuan per Australian to cheat tax workers. The tax gap is one of the ATO's statistics, that is, tax missed through unreliable reporting.
In fiscal year 2014-15, the personal tax gap is expected to be 6.4 percent, or 8.7 billion yuan, with the main failure to report work-related expenditures correctly. By contrast, the net income tax gap for large enterprises is 5.8%, or 2.5 billion yuan.
The tax gap was calculated through a series of random audits that were inferred from the tax payer as a whole. Deputy ATO Commissioner Renton (Alison Lendon) said in a statement. "7 out of 10 randomly selected tax returns have one or more errors."
ATO said it would use more data matching technology and information from third parties such as financial institutions and employers to identify these errors.
Renton, goverment announced additional funding in the 2018 budget to support our efforts.
"this will enable us to continue to make it easier for taxpayers and their agents to file tax returns by improving services and preventing errors. We will also increase our focus on high-risk behaviour, such as repeated and intentional irregularities, fraud and intentional violations. "
Ten mistakes in tax rebate:
Didn't declare all the income: ATO knew your welfare money or occasionally earned as an Uber driver.
You have declared all "non-receipt" charges: work-related costs of A $300, laundry costs of 150, and car costs of 5000 km. ATO has placed special emphasis on such work-related costs this year.
You report a lot more than your peers: ATO compares the data between peers. If your expense declaration is far above average, they may want to check it out. This is not to say that you cannot declare the expenses you are entitled to declare, but make sure you have evidence to support your declaration.
You still owe goverment money: if you still owe the Inland Revenue Department, the Centrelink, Home Assistance Office or any other goverment agency, your tax rebate will be delayed because ATO wants to offset that debt with your tax rebate.
You didn't update your personal information: for example, you're married, your name is different from the last time you submitted your tax return, and you didn't notify ATO, so your tax rebate would be delayed because they found that your name didn't match their record. You need to confirm your identity.
Employers have not submitted your PAYG to ATO:. When you submit a tax return, they compare the information with the information submitted by your employer. If your employer has not yet submitted the information they should submit, the Inland Revenue Department cannot compare and delay your tax rebate.
You still have your previous year's tax returns outstanding: if you procrastinate and the previous year's tax returns are still overdue, the ATO sometimes delays processing your tax rebates this year.
You have not declared capital gains: if you have capital gains this year, you must declare them in Article 18-Capital gains in the tax return. If you sell a stock or an investment house and you don't declare it, ATO may have to check your tax returns. ATO's sophisticated high-tech technology allows them to match data with other goverment institutions and financial institutions.
You do not include your spouse in the tax return, or write the wrong name; if you have a spouse, you need to fill in their information in the tax return.
You forgot to declare bank interest: if you have savings in the bank to earn interest, you need to declare it in your tax return.
