Taxpayers have only three weeks to deal with their homes, especially 1.8 million Australians who own investment and holiday homes, the Australian Revenue Service (ATO) warned.
Income and tax deductions from converting rooms into home offices or renting bedrooms to long-term lodgers or visitors are also subject to careful scrutiny, ATO said.
Anderson (Kath Anderson), ATO's assistant commissioner, said it would monitor taxpayers who rely on tax agents, who use tax agents for about 66 percent of their tax returns, which may prefer to file more tax deductions and benefits than they deserve.
"We have a mature system that matches data from hundreds of sources," Anderson said of how ATO identifies errors, exaggerations or fraud in 9.6 million taxpayer returns.
Investment house
Chapman (Mark Chapman), head of communications at Hor Block, said ATO would "keep an eye on" over-reporting interest rates, such as attempts by owners to declare the cost of borrowing on their own homes as rentals.
The point is that the distribution of rental income and expenditure between co-owners is not correct. For example, the deductions that can be reported on jointly owned properties are applied to homeowners with higher taxable incomes, rather than to flat sharing.
In addition, investors will be targeted by ATO if they make incorrect claims for newly purchased rental properties.
"the cost of repairing damage and defects at the time of purchase or the cost of renovation cannot be reported immediately," Chapman said. These costs take several years to file tax deductions, and you can expect the ATO to review them and reject those that don't. "
The landlord of Airbnb is eligible to deduct fees, but the declaration must be directly linked to income and require a receipt or record as proof.
"remember, ATO has access to a wide range of third-party data sources, including popular holiday rental companies such as Stayz and Airbnb, so it's easy for them to determine if a property is' available for rent.'" Chapman added.
Holiday house
Holiday homeowners are ATO's main targets, especially those who do not really want to rent their homes.
Anderson cited a Victorian home owner who earned about 27000 yuan in rent between 2014 and 15, but claimed to have spent more than seven hundred thousand yuan.
She said owners would be in trouble if they kept renting their homes to friends for less than the market rent, did not rent them during the holiday peak, or deliberately idle 90 percent of the year, but wanted to declare 100 percent of the fees. Other issues include deliberately rejecting tenants, such as setting an unreasonable minimum number of overnight days, banning golf tenants or high-heeled women from staying.
Anderson advised those with home offices to keep invoices, receipts, declarations and diaries in support of expenses on meals, mobile phones and the Internet related to work or business
She said ATO noticed that many people would declare all mobile phone, laundry, Internet or meal costs as work-related expenses, but in fact only part of them were work expenses and the rest were private.
Some are also abusing record-keeping rules, including nearly 4 million taxpayers reporting work-related car costs totalling nearly 9 billion yuan.
"if this is really what you need to make money, it makes sense to file for 5000 kilometers," Anderson said. "but we're worried that some taxpayers mistakenly believe that this is the standard deduction they deserve. There is no need to provide any evidence that you have travelled this distance for your job to deduct taxes. "
She said the ATO compares taxpayer filings with other people in similar occupations with similar incomes to determine whether these are work-related trips or private trips.
Encrypted currency
The ATO assesses encrypted currency in a similar manner to real estate, imposing a capital gains tax on its earnings.
ATO is working with banks, AUSTRAC and state revenue offices to identify suspicious activities, particularly property transactions.
Although the circulation of encrypted money is anonymous, it becomes traceable when converted to legal tender.
"A lot of people think encrypted currencies are anonymous, but as long as they operate in the digital world, they leave an electronic footprint," Anderson said. "We have a well-established system that matches data from banks, financial institutions and online exchanges. To recover funds for taxpayers. "
