Tax Time - 2009

Education tax refund

The education tax refund allows eligible parents to claim a refund on some education expenses incurred on or after 1 July 2008 for their children who are in primary or secondary school.

Claiming Donations to Charity

You can claim a tax deduction in your 2009 tax return for your gift or donation if the organisation is a registered deductible gift recipient. When you claim a tax deduction for donations you need to keep your receipt as evidence of your donation. A web receipt or credit card statement is also acceptable if you donated over the phone, web or through third parties such as banks or retail outlets.

Work-related expenses - what you can claim in 2009

you must have incurred the expense in the year you are claiming it

the expense must be work-related and not private and if the expense has been reimbursed by your employer it can’t be claimed

receiving an allowance from your employer does not automatically entitle you to a deduction, and

if your claims total more than $300 you need to keep written evidence.

Medicare ley surcharge thresholds

The Medicare levy surcharge thresholds increased to $70,000 for a single person and $140,000 for families from 1 July 2008. This means if you or your family earned above these thresholds during 2008-09 and didn’t have private patient hospital cover you will pay a surcharge of 1 per cent for any period during the year you didn’t have cover.

For this year only, you are considered to have been covered by private hospital cover all year if you took out an appropriate policy some time between 1 July and 31 December 2008, and then continued to be covered from 1 January to 30 June 2009.

For Small Business People - Payment deferral for BAS debts

The Tax Office is offering a deferral of the payment due date for activity statement liabilities for small businesses with an annual turnover of less than $2 million. A deferral of up to two months can be granted for quarterly and annual payers and up to one month for monthly payers.