It’s tax time and the common scam email informing that you’re eligible for a tax refund is doing the rounds again! Scammers have long used the promise of a tax refund to trick people into sharing their personal information or to download malware.

Tax scams are real and taxpayers need to be vigilant about bogus calls, text messages and emails from scammers. Some scammers go to great lengths to deceive taxpayers, including impersonating government representatives on the phone, sending fraudulent emails and even creating fake websites. It’s important to stay informed about what the latest scams look like, and know what questions to ask so you can avoid being scammed.

Tax time has come around for another year, and this year the ATO is focusing on “other” work-related expense deductions and work-related car expenses.  It says taxpayer must remember that they are not automatically entitled to claim standard deductions and that all expenses need to be substantiated. Taxpayers need to be able to show that they spent the money themselves and were not reimbursed, the expense was directly related to earning their income, and they have a record to prove it.

Small businesses may be eligible for a range of tax benefits. CPA Australia has put together the following tax tips to help small businesses.

With the ATO’s compliance targeting of large businesses in the past few years reaping rewards, this tax time, its turning its attention to small businesses. As a small business owner, what do you need to be aware of to stay out of the ATO spotlight?

Did you know from 1 July 2018, GST will apply to sales of all goods to Australia. The previous $1,000 low-value threshold will no longer apply and those businesses that meet the $75,000 registration threshold will need to register, charge and remit GST to the ATO. This applies regardless of where the business is based.