The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has confirmed that Australian taxpayers could claim a reduction for COVID-19 test expenses incurred for work-related purposes. As individuals and businesses are preparing tax documents for the end of the financial year, the ATO is expected to see the impacts of COVID-19 on tax returns. “We know that many have…

Australian cryptocurrency (or crypto) owners will need to pay due diligence when they lodge their tax returns this year as the Australian Tax Office (ATO) has announced that it will focus on capital gains from crypto-assets for the 2022 tax season. In a statement released on May 16, the ATO emphasised that Australians would have…

An independent audit of Jobkeeper by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has found the federal government largely implemented the pandemic support scheme effectively while having some shortcomings. The federal government created the JobKeeper scheme at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to keep Australians employed by supporting impacted businesses with payments of $1,500 (US$1,144)…

Victorian employers are underpaying their workers an estimated $1.2 billion (US$861 million) each year in superannuation, an analysis has found. According to Industry Super Australia (ISA), more than 760,000 employees in the state received $1,606 (US$1,153) less in retirement savings on average in the 2018/2019 financial year. However, ISA chief executive Bernie Dean said not many…

The Australian Tax Office will investigate data from the Pandora Papers, which contain around 12 million leaked documents revealing the offshore accounts of well-known political figures. Will Day, the ATO’s deputy commissioner and chief of the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce (SFCT) will probe the data leak to identify any possible offshore tax evasion. “We are…