ATO Updates (June 2021)

ATO’s warning to Taxpayers on Work related Expenses

• The ATO has issued a warning to taxpayers urging them not to ‘copy & paste’ previous year’s claims in this year’s tax returns.
• The ATO has said around 8.5 million Australians have claimed close to $19.4 billion in work related expenses in their 2020 Tax Returns.
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ATO expects to see work related expenses to fall while WFH claims go up.

Tax Practitioners Board’s (TPB) support for Tax Practitioners

• Concessions on Annual Declaration Completion.
• Assistance in registration renewal.
• Temporary removal of 25% cap for relevant technical/professional reading activity in TPB’s Continuing Professional Education (CPE) policy up to 31^st December 2021.
• Concessions to Tax Practitioners falling short of the relevant experience to meet the registration renewal requirements.

FBT Exemption for employee retraining expenses

• Employers will be exempt from FBT on the amount spent on training/educating a redundant/soon to be redundant employees for assisting them to gain a new employment.
• This comes into effect from 2^nd October 2021.

New Zealand Sporting Teams in Australia

• New Zealand to maintain ‘Primary Taxing Right’ over the members of its sporting teams participating in Australia.
• Where the members of the sporting teams exceed their stay in Australia beyond 183 days due to COVID-19, this will be disregarded, and the income derived from the sporting competition will be taxed in New Zealand as if it were earned in New Zealand.

Extension to the Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI) scheme

• The JMEI scheme was introduced to encourage investment in small minerals exploration companies carrying out greenfield mineral exploration in Australia.
• This was originally introduced in FY2017-18 for period of 4 years ending with FY2020-21.
• This is now extended for another 4 years up to FY2024-25.

ATO expresses concerns over cryptocurrency & related tax obligations

• The ATO is concerned that most taxpayers believe their cryptocurrency gains are either tax free or taxable only when their holdings are cashed back into AUD.
• It is estimated that over 600,000 taxpayers have invested in cryptocurrency in the recent years.

Single touch payroll reporting
Single touch payroll will apply to most businesses from 1 July 2021, this will include small businesses (those with 19 or fewer staff) and businesses with closely held employees (e.g., directors of family companies, salary and wages for family employees of businesses). No further extensions will be granted.

New accounting standard AASB 2020-21 applies from 1 July 2021
The new accounting standard released by the Australian Accounting Standards Board applies from 1 July 2021 and may change how you prepare SMSF’s financial statements.

Super Guarantee rate increase
On 1 July 2021, the super guarantee rate will rise from 9.5% to 10%. If you have employees, you will need to ensure your payroll and accounting systems are updated to incorporate the increase to the super rate.

Transfer balance cap
From 1 July 2021, all individuals will have a personal transfer balance cap between $1.6 million and $1.7 million.

Job Relocation Assistance Program

• Job seekers relocating to take up ongoing work (including apprenticeship) may be eligible to receive up to $9,000 as assistance from the government.
• The working hours during the relocation time should be more than 20 hours/week and the period of relocation should be more than 6 months.
• This program is called as ‘Relocation Assistance to Take Up a Job (RATTUAJ)’.
• This program comes into effect from 1^st May 2021. Please refer to the below table: