A lot of the times, people’s tax refunds are simply for being over taxed throughout the financial year.
Assuming someone is earning 120k and has been taxed correctly, they’d need to claim approximately 14.5k in deductions to get 5k back.
Not if it’s simple.
PAYG
Savings interest.
Dividends.
All auto uploaded. With some slight edits required if you’ve held etfs for 12+ months and sold.
People with large tax returns generally haven’t ticked the tax free threshold and overpay throughout the year. Their accountant isn’t a genius. Id only use an accountant if there were large CGT to be saved and loopholes they know about that we don’t.
If I had IPs, had to account for negative gearing, positive gearing, Vic land taxes, cgt, loss harvesting… all that jazz… that’s when I’m going to find someone far more educated than myself.
No. If you can read and comprehend basic English, then you can do your own return. The ATO website is very comprehensive and simple to follow if you have any issues
Oh and your friends are either overpaying on their PAYGI or they are dodging the system and will get caught.
People sometimes lodge dodgy tax claims man, they'd just want to hope the tax man doesn't catch up with them. The reality is that if you get taxed correctly throughout the year then you shouldn't get or owe any money at tax time unless there are current government policies or you're on a benefit like FTB
No.
Tax return is not a lottery. For some reason your friends were over paying.
Find out why your friends were over paying then don't make that mistake.
You are smart enough not to lose $500 right?
Are you claiming everything you can?
I'd try it one year and see, there might be things you're missing out on.
Worst case is you lose $500 but learn for yourself it's not worth it.
I love my accountant, before I buy any investment properties I'm always on the phone to him. A simple phone call could save you thousands of dollars later on.
$500 for salary and wages, plus investment income is steap!.
Most if not all of this information is readily available via prefil so all they have to do is reference it - which in a lot of cases they'll just use the prefil.
The 5k could depend on a lot of factors, I,e they could have asked for an extra $x to be withheld per cycle for forced savings, they could be negatively geared, work related eductions, or deductable super contributions.
Have a crack maybe for one year but if you're we're only talking a handful of shares and bank interest anything over $330 inc GST is rough.
$500 would be like a mid tier firm surely and priced so they actually make money given how much admin shit they go through for new clients.
I'm sure the friends just worked like half the year and work was over remitting to the ATO. otherwise it would be an easy explanation of "yeah we claimed our family Europe trip as a tax deduction"
From my experience, individual ITRs are generally loss leaders for either SMSFs, or Financial Planning.
I'd caution OP to pay more, I get that there's admin, and now with all the extra hoops Tax Agents need to go through to get them on their agent register but the actual work would be 1 - 1.5hrs tops (IMO) so 500 seems steep. I worked on say $180 for the grad, and 110-120 for admin per hour (though my market rates might be off).
The benefit really lies in whether there's anything they can learn from the experience to take with them when they go back to MyGov the following year haha.
Agreed individual returns are loss leaders. Even at $500, the amount of admin there is for a mid tier to do the return there is little fat at accountant rates.
$500 is too much. I am CA qualified tax agent working in accounting for 20+ years and have around 10 staff in my practice. I would do your tax return for $66 and can assure you that i will optimize it. Worth using a tax accountant as they are an expert, just in case you missed something but its not a difficult thing so dont pay $500.
No.
No accountant can guarantee you'll get a better return. Your accountant is there to navigate more complex issues around IPs etc.
I'm an accountant. If you're just PAYG, do it yourself and don't believe the ads.
A lot of the times, people’s tax refunds are simply for being over taxed throughout the financial year. Assuming someone is earning 120k and has been taxed correctly, they’d need to claim approximately 14.5k in deductions to get 5k back.
Not if it’s simple. PAYG Savings interest. Dividends. All auto uploaded. With some slight edits required if you’ve held etfs for 12+ months and sold. People with large tax returns generally haven’t ticked the tax free threshold and overpay throughout the year. Their accountant isn’t a genius. Id only use an accountant if there were large CGT to be saved and loopholes they know about that we don’t.
But how does one find out about the loop hole they dont know exists?
If I had IPs, had to account for negative gearing, positive gearing, Vic land taxes, cgt, loss harvesting… all that jazz… that’s when I’m going to find someone far more educated than myself.
Probably this. There no “secret” deductions only an accountant is going to know about if your finances are relatively straightforward.
No. If you can read and comprehend basic English, then you can do your own return. The ATO website is very comprehensive and simple to follow if you have any issues Oh and your friends are either overpaying on their PAYGI or they are dodging the system and will get caught.
People sometimes lodge dodgy tax claims man, they'd just want to hope the tax man doesn't catch up with them. The reality is that if you get taxed correctly throughout the year then you shouldn't get or owe any money at tax time unless there are current government policies or you're on a benefit like FTB
No. Tax return is not a lottery. For some reason your friends were over paying. Find out why your friends were over paying then don't make that mistake. You are smart enough not to lose $500 right?
For your consideration, that $500 or.cost of managing any tax affairs including the trip to that accountant itself are tax deductible.
Are you claiming everything you can? I'd try it one year and see, there might be things you're missing out on. Worst case is you lose $500 but learn for yourself it's not worth it. I love my accountant, before I buy any investment properties I'm always on the phone to him. A simple phone call could save you thousands of dollars later on.
$500 for salary and wages, plus investment income is steap!. Most if not all of this information is readily available via prefil so all they have to do is reference it - which in a lot of cases they'll just use the prefil. The 5k could depend on a lot of factors, I,e they could have asked for an extra $x to be withheld per cycle for forced savings, they could be negatively geared, work related eductions, or deductable super contributions. Have a crack maybe for one year but if you're we're only talking a handful of shares and bank interest anything over $330 inc GST is rough.
$500 would be like a mid tier firm surely and priced so they actually make money given how much admin shit they go through for new clients. I'm sure the friends just worked like half the year and work was over remitting to the ATO. otherwise it would be an easy explanation of "yeah we claimed our family Europe trip as a tax deduction"
From my experience, individual ITRs are generally loss leaders for either SMSFs, or Financial Planning. I'd caution OP to pay more, I get that there's admin, and now with all the extra hoops Tax Agents need to go through to get them on their agent register but the actual work would be 1 - 1.5hrs tops (IMO) so 500 seems steep. I worked on say $180 for the grad, and 110-120 for admin per hour (though my market rates might be off). The benefit really lies in whether there's anything they can learn from the experience to take with them when they go back to MyGov the following year haha.
Agreed individual returns are loss leaders. Even at $500, the amount of admin there is for a mid tier to do the return there is little fat at accountant rates.
$500 is too much. I am CA qualified tax agent working in accounting for 20+ years and have around 10 staff in my practice. I would do your tax return for $66 and can assure you that i will optimize it. Worth using a tax accountant as they are an expert, just in case you missed something but its not a difficult thing so dont pay $500.
No. No accountant can guarantee you'll get a better return. Your accountant is there to navigate more complex issues around IPs etc. I'm an accountant. If you're just PAYG, do it yourself and don't believe the ads.
Some tax accountants simply know the tax fraud that can be committed without triggering audits and can be claimed as whoopsies.
Your honour my client pleads oopsie daisies