You want a tax audit?
The Australian Taxation Office constantly conducts reviews of tax returns lodged and contacts taxpayers when issues come to their attention.
The most common instance, is after you lodge a tax return reporting interest income, and they write to you and ask you about the other $1000 you might have earned, that you haven’t included in your tax return.
Other common examples are:
missing employment income or taxable government benefits
employee share scheme amounts
eligibility to exemption from the Medicare Levy Surcharge
significant amounts deducted against income, such as employment or rental income
Increasingly the ATO are:
identifying disposals of shares
picking-up errors in private health insurance disclosures
chasing people who have not lodged one or more income tax returns
So by not lodging tax returns, or lodging them and omitting income or CGT reporting for asset transactions, or claiming large deductions are excellent ways to have yourself audited by the ATO.
The best way to avoid a tax audit? Well, lodge regularly, and stick within the rules!
Our clients hardly ever have any issues or questions raised by the ATO, and generally the only issues that arise are:
when Clients have not supplied their tax information for us to prepare their outstanding tax returns
errors … by the ATO
That’s one benefit of having your taxation affairs handled by a professional tax expert. Not just a Chartered Accountant. Not just a Registered Tax Agent. But someone with 20+ years of experience and care of a wide-range of clients, who knows how to protect you as a client, and provide you advice that is in your best interests.
