ATO to individuals: be cautious when it comes to believing popular myths about tax deductions.
These include a $150 dollar deduction for laundry, $300 for work-related expenses, and 5,000km for car expenses. Assistant Commissioner Kath Anderson stressed that there has to be a link between the expenses claimed and the income earned, and that one should be able to demonstrate to the ATO how they came up with the calculations.
Listen on ATO’s Top 10 Tax Time Myths are the following:
• Everyone can automatically claim $150 for clothing and laundry, 5000 kilometres for car-related expenses, or $300 for work-related expenses, even if they didn’t spend the money;
• You don’t need a receipt, you can just use your bank or credit card statement;
• You can claim makeup that contains sunscreen if you work outside;
• You can claim gym membership;
• You can claim all your travel expenses if you add a conference or a few days’ work to your holiday;
More myths…
• You can claim your work clothes because your boss told you to wear a certain colour;
• You can claim your whole Netflix or Foxtel subscription because you need to keep up to date for work;
• You can claim home-to-work travel because you need to get to work to earn your income;
• You’ve got a capped phone plan, so you can claim both personal and private phone calls;
• If you use an agent, they will take responsibility for your claims.
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