Australian Tax Office eLink for Wednesday 7 July 2010

Claim full entitlements for your clients We have developed three new occupation‑specific guides to help you and your clients correctly claim their work-related expenses in their 2009-10 tax returns. They contain information about common work-related expenses for: engineers mechanics teachers. We developed these guides in consultation with tax practitioners and employees from the specific industries. To view all of our occupational products, refer to Industries and occupations. If your clients are new to claiming work-related expenses, we recommend you also refer them to introductory information on work-related expenses. Declaring overseas income We have found that some Australian resident taxpayers (both individual and business) are not aware they must report in their Australian income tax returns foreign income that they have received. If your clients received foreign income and paid foreign tax on it, they may be entitled to a foreign income tax offset. When preparing your client's tax returns, remember to ask them if they have received any foreign income or had overseas dealings. For more information, refer to: Reporting foreign income Reporting overseas business income Claiming foreign losses. GDP adjustment remains at 2% for 2010-11 We adjust pay as you go (PAYG) instalment and goods and services tax (GST) instalment amounts to reflect changes in the economic growth. This is known as the gross domestic product (GDP) adjustment. We update this every year, based on national account data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The GDP adjustment used to calculate PAYG instalment amounts and GST instalments will remain at 2% for the 2010-11 income year. Your clients should take this into consideration when planning for the coming income year. ELS connection issues when using a 64bit version of Microsoft Windows If you are having issues in connecting to the electronic lodgment service (ELS) and you are using CISCO VPN client software to connect, you may need to upgrade your CISCO VPN client. If you can still connect to ELS then there is no requirement to upgrade. For more information on upgrading, refer to the Product register.

Lodgment Program 2010-11 is now available
Broadcast sent 1 July 2010 advising tax agents that theLodgment Program 2010-11 for registered tax agents and BAS agents is effective from 1 July 2010.

Portal reports - ATO interest temporarily unavailable
Broadcast sent on 29 June 2010 informing tax agents that the Tax Agent Portal reports won't include ATO interest amounts until a little later in the year.

What's happening this tax time?
Practical tips to help you during the first few weeks of the new financial year.

Time to lodge your 2009-10 tax return
Tax Commissioner Michael D'Ascenzo reminded Australia's 12.6 million taxpayers to start getting ready to lodge their tax returns by the 31 October deadline.

New personal income tax thresholds apply from 1 July 2010
The ATO is reminding employers to use the new personal income tax rates from 1 July 2010 when withholding tax from their employees.

ATO Regulation of SMSFs
Speech by Stuart Forsyth, Assistant Commissioner, Superannuation, to the Taxation Institute of Australia, Superannuation Intensive Conference on 2 June 2010.

Boeing enhances tax certainty under new agreement with Australian Tax Office
Boeing Australia has joined a growing number of large companies seeking certainty in their tax affairs by entering into an annual compliance arrangement (ACA) with the ATO.

Small business director jailed following Wickenby investigations
A small business director was sentenced to two-and-a-half years jail in the NSW District Court for using a scheme to avoid paying tax on his overseas income.

Online services for businesses
As a business, you can use the following tools to deal with us online.

ATO shopfront locations
There have been changes to where ATO shopfront services are provided.

Portal maintenance schedule
Scheduled downtime 2010.

Keydates for tax agents - July
July key dates for tax agents.

Foreign exchange rates
List of daily, monthly and annual foreign exchange rates.

Changes to excise advice from 1 July 2010
From 1 July 2010, excise duty and its administration or collection is included in our general rulings system.

Changes to Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) rulings from 1 July 2010
This information is an overview of the changes that will result from the WET rulings regime being aligned with the general rulings regime.

LCTD 2010/1 Luxury car tax: what is the luxury car tax threshold for the 2010-11 financial year?
This determination advises the luxury car tax threshold for the 2010-11 financial year, which is $57,466 - equal to the car limit. It is used to determine when luxury car tax is payable.

Amendment to the definition of a managed investment trust (MIT)
This information outlines amendments recently announced by the government to extend the definition of a managed investment trust (MIT) for withholding tax purposes.

Look-through treatment for earnout arrangements
The government will introduce legislation to apply look-through capital gains tax (CGT) treatment for qualifying earnout arrangements in the sale of business assets.

Adopting the general rulings system for indirect taxes and excise
From 1 July 2010, the general ruling system includes excise, GST and other indirect taxes. These changes are intended to reduce compliance costs for the taxpayers by providing more consistent rules across different taxes.

Transfer of state and territory unclaimed super money to the Commonwealth
In the 2010-11 Budget the government announced that it will introduce a measure to allow the states and territories to transfer unclaimed super money to the ATO.

Australia-Marshall Islands tax information exchange agreement
A new tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) and accompanying Allocation of Taxing Rights (ATR) agreement between Australia and the Marshall Islands was signed by representatives of both countries on 12 May 2010.

Draft Taxation Ruling 2010/D4 - Petroleum resource rent tax: general pre-conditions common to deductibility of expenditure of a kind referred to in sections 37, 38 and 39 of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987 (PRRTAA)
This draft ruling explains three general pre-conditions which are prerequisite to any expenditure being eligible real expenditure for the purposes of the PRRTAA.

Draft Taxation Ruling 2010/D5 - Petroleum resource rent tax: excluded expenditure under paragraphs 44(j) and 44(k) of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987 - administrative, accounting, wages, salary, other work costs, and overhead expenditure; land or buildings for use in accounting or administration not adjacent to the operations site
This draft ruling explains that expenditure incurred by a person may be eligible real expenditure under sections 37, 38 and 39 of the PRRTAA provided it is not excluded expenditure as defined in section 44 of the PRRTAA.

Draft Taxation Ruling 2010/D6 - Petroleum resource rent tax: deductibility of expenditure to procure the carrying on or providing of operations, facilities or other things by another person in relation to a petroleum project, as provided by section 41 of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987
This draft ruling relates to payments made by a person to procure the carrying on or providing of operations, facilities or other things of a kind referred to in sections 37, 38 or 39 of the PRRTAA by another person in relation to the petroleum project, as provided for in section 41 of the PRRTAA.

Legal Database updates
The latest updates to the Legal Database.

Changes to tax invoices and recipient created tax invoices - frequently asked questions
The document provides answers to frequently asked questions about changes to tax invoices and recipient created tax invoices (RCTIs) being introduced as part of the Board of Taxation's review of the legal framework for the administration of GST.

The electronic lodgment concession and the due date for making certain TOFA elections
The electronic lodgment concession for early December balancers does not change the due date for making and notifying the Commissioner (where relevant) of taxation of financial arrangements (TOFA) elections. For most early December balancers this will be the lodgment date of 15 July 2010.

Employer guide for reportable employer superannuation contributions (RESC)
This document will assist employers understand their new obligations, changes to payment summaries and payroll systems and what reportable employer super contributions are.

Indirect Tax Sharing Agreement (ITSA)
From 1 July 2010, entities in a GST group or GST joint venture can enter into an indirect tax sharing agreement (ITSA) to limit their share of any indirect tax law liabilities payable by that group or joint venture.

Repaying your HELP debt 2010-11
This publication explains how Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debts will be repaid in the 2010-11 income year.

Workforce education news - Issue 4/2010
This issue covers a range of topics affecting employers and professional associations, and their employees and members, including tax time information. Issued in June 2010.

Non-Profit News Service No. 0289 - New guides released for taxable non-profit organisations
We have released two new guides for taxable non-profit clubs, societies and associations: Mutuality and taxable income and Guide to company tax return for non-profit organisations 2010.