Superannuation is often the most significant asset in a separated couple’s property pool, particularly for low-income households with few assets. Parties to family law proceedings are already legally required to disclose all of their assets to the court, including superannuation, but in practice parties may forget, or deliberately withhold, information about their super assets.

The Government has announced an electronic information-sharing mechanism to be established between the ATO and the Family Law Courts to allow superannuation assets held by relevant parties during family law proceedings to be identified swiftly and more accurately from 2020.  This measure was included as part of a broader financial support package for women announced on in November.

Some businesses are making simple mistakes reporting their GST.  The ATO reminds taxpayers that avoid the following common GST reporting errors:

• transposition and calculation errors – these mistakes often happen when manually entering amounts, so it’s important to double-check all figures and calculations before submitting your BAS;

• no tax invoice – you must keep tax invoices to be able to claim GST credits on business-related purchases;

• transaction classifications – it’s important to check what GST applies for each transaction; for example, transactions involving food may be GST applicable; and

• errors in accounting systems – a system with one coding error can classify several transactions incorrectly.

The company tax rate for base rate entities will now reduce from 27.5% to 26% in 2020–2021, and then to 25% for 2021–2022 and later income years. This means eligible corporate taxpayers will pay 25% in 2021–2022, rather than from 2026–2027.

The new law also increases the small business income tax offset rate to 13% of the basic income tax liability that relates to small business income for 2020–2021.  The offset rate will then increase to 16% for 2021–2022 and later income years.

The maximum available amount of the small business tax offset does not change – it will stay capped at $1,000 per person, per year.

Although tax time 2018 is over, the ATO has warned taxpayers and their agents to remain on high alert for tax scams.  Scammers are growing increasingly sophisticated and hope to exploit vulnerable people, often using aggressive tactics to swindle people out of their money or personal information.

Be wary if anyone contacts you demanding payment of a tax debt that you didn’t know about.  The ATO will never ask you to make a payment into an ATM or using gift or pre-paid cards such as iTunes and Visa cards, and will never you to deposit funds into a personal bank account.

TIP: Scammers have been known to impersonate tax agents as well as ATO staff.  If you have any doubts about the legitimacy of a phone call or other communication, contact your Harris Black team member or you can call the ATO directly (toll free) on 1800 888 540.