An essential guide that will help you minimise your tax bill and maximise your after-tax earnings
In 101 Ways to Save Money On Your Tax - Legally! 2024-2025, bestselling author Adrian Raftery - aka Mr. Taxman - shows you how to lower your tax bill and keep more of your hard-earned money. You’ll learn what’s different this year in the tax codes and how the May 2024 budget and Stage 3 tax cuts affect your bottom line. Get the most out of your taxable assets and (legally!) reduce your taxes.
101 Ways to Save Money On Your Tax - Legally! makes it easy to find and implement every deduction that applies to you. This handy guide, trusted by tens of thousands of Australians, takes the stress and confusion out of the tax season. Find out what you actually owe and lodge on time, with no mistakes.
Whether you're an individual, married couple, investor, business owner or pensioner, this guide will help you:
- Understand how your taxes have changed for this year
- Reduce your tax bill, potentially by $100s or $1000s
- Easily navigate work-related expenses, levies, shares, property, education, business expenses, family expenses, superannuation, and more
- Protect yourself against errors, audits, overpayments, and common tax traps
- Get the answers to frequently asked questions
Updated with all the latest tax legislation and thresholds, this 14th edition of 101 Ways to Save Money On Your Tax - Legally! is the comprehensive, authoritative and easy-to-follow guide that every Australian needs. Don’t pay more than you have to. Mr. Taxman is here to help.
Table of Contents
About the Author xi
How to Use This Book xiii
Introduction xv
Part I You and Your Family 1
1 Marriage 2
2 Income splitting 4
3 Dependant (invalid and carer) tax offset 6
4 Children 8
5 Payments for new parents 10
6 Child care 12
7 Low-income earners 15
8 Senior and pensioner tax offset 16
9 Other government benefits 18
10 Family breakdown 22
11 Death 24
12 Family trusts 26
Part II Your Employment 29
13 Car usage 31
14 Methods to claim car travel 33
15 Travel 35
16 Uniform 37
17 Home office 39
18 Other work-related deductions 42
19 Keeping those receipts 45
20 ATO hit lists 48
21 Redundancy 51
22 Working a second job 53
23 Salary sacrifice 54
24 Fringe benefits 56
25 Living-away-from-home allowance 61
Part III Your Education 65
26 Claiming self-education expenses 66
27 Student loans 70
28 Austudy and ABSTUDY 77
29 Scholarships 79
30 School building funds 81
31 Education savings plans 83
Part IV Your Investment Property 87
32 Negative gearing 89
33 Interest 91
34 Depreciation and low-value pooling 94
35 Repairs and maintenance 98
36 Borrowing and legal expenses 100
37 Other rental property deductions 104
38 Foreign investment properties 106
39 Capital gains tax 108
40 PAYG withholding variation 111
41 Co-ownership of your investment property 113
42 Build-to-rent properties 115
Part V Your Shares 119
43 Dividends 120
44 Shares owned by low income earners 126
45 Borrowing to buy shares 129
46 Other share deductions 131
47 Capital gains tax on shares 132
48 Realising capital losses 134
49 Inheriting share portfolios 136
50 Share traders versus share investors 138
51 Rights and options 140
52 Employee share schemes 142
53 Share portfolios within self managed superannuation funds 144
54 Cryptocurrency 146
55 Non-fungible tokens 151
Part VI Your Superannuation 153
56 Contribution limits 156
57 Transfer Balance Cap 159
58 Downsizer Contribution 162
59 Compulsory employer contributions 165
60 Salary sacrifice 167
61 Division 293 tax 170
62 Super co-contribution 172
63 Transferring foreign super 175
64 Self managed superannuation funds 176
65 Buying property within SMSFs 179
66 Gearing through a super fund 182
67 Accessing your super 184
68 Transition to retirement 187
69 Account-based pensions 189
70 Death benefits 190
71 Lost or unclaimed super 192
Part VII Your Business 197
72 Choosing the right business structure 198
73 Tax obligations 203
74 Record keeping 206
75 Deferring tax 208
76 Trading stock 210
77 Bad debts 212
78 Home-based businesses 213
79 Sharing Economy 215
80 Employing people 218
81 Single Touch Payroll 221
82 Tax concessions and offsets 223
83 Selling or closing down 229
84 Personal services income 231
85 Non-commercial losses 232
86 Division 7A loans by private companies 234
87 Franchising 236
88 Crowdfunding 237
Part VIII Miscellaneous 241
89 Overseas income 241
90 Getting a great tax accountant 244
91 Lodging your tax return 247
92 Amending returns and objecting to assessments 249
93 ATO data matching 252
94 Problems paying your tax 256
95 Estate planning 257
96 Private ancillary funds 262
97 Levies 266
98 Zone and overseas forces tax offsets 269
99 Tax-effective investments 270
100 Tax planning as a 365-day process 272
101 Just do it! 273
Glossary 275
Bibliography 293
Index 295
