Advertisement
Australia markets closed
  • ALL ORDS

    7,957.80
    +32.60 (+0.41%)
     
  • AUD/USD

    0.6520
    -0.0041 (-0.62%)
     
  • ASX 200

    7,703.20
    +27.40 (+0.36%)
     
  • OIL

    82.80
    +0.08 (+0.10%)
     
  • GOLD

    2,157.80
    -6.50 (-0.30%)
     
  • Bitcoin AUD

    96,715.59
    -8,005.33 (-7.64%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     

How to earn $2,600 for 7 minutes of work

Young women sending money through digital wallet, using smartphones.
A smartphone app can reap you thousands of dollars each year. (Image: Getty)

An Australian startup claims its device has put more than $2,600 into a customer's pocket for just seven minutes of administration time.

Gofar makes small devices that attach to most passenger vehicles, and works like a black box on a plane.

It collects data about distances travelled, efficiency, performance and health of the car, which can be viewed on a smartphone app.

That data can be analysed to save on fuel and servicing, and improve safety by shaping the driver's behaviour.

But the big immediate reward is available for Australians who drive for work-related purposes.

The Gofar team sent an email this year that described the situation of one NSW customer who drives everyday as part of her job.

ADVERTISEMENT

Over the 2018 and 2019 financial years, she estimates she could have claimed 5000km annually as a tax deduction.

But she didn't bother, as that requires meticulous logging of all her work-related driving.

"She hated keeping records so she paid $6,000 more tax than needed," GoFar stated.

For the 2020 tax year, the customer had installed the Gofar device in her car, which logged the trips automatically on her behalf.

"The benefit for her? $2,652," said the company.

"300 work trips in her private car [is] 3,900km or so. She can claim $0.68/km, [which is] $2,652 of less tax."

Each time she uses the car for a work trip, she merely presses a button in the app.

If that action takes one second, the admin only takes up 300 seconds for the whole year. Adding two minutes to upload the data to her accountant, the total effort is just seven minutes.

"If you can earn $2,652 for seven mins of labour your hourly rate is $22,731. That's so much that when I wrote this email it kept autocorrecting to a phone number!"

This example is considered a conservative case – tradespeople, who constantly drive for their work, would end up with much more than 3,900km of mileage each year.

"If you're driving more than 5,000km for work purposes or have a more expensive car or ute then think about doing a 12-week ATO logbook," stated the company.

"Gofar also slashes the time that this takes and you can keep more thousands in your bank account."

Gofar was founded by aeronautical engineer Danny Adams and marketing executive Ian Davidson in 2013. The system went live in 2016 after a Kickstarter campaign that raised $224,000.

Follow Yahoo Finance Australia on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Sign up to the newsletter for exclusive access to the Yahoo Finance Breakfast Club.
Sign up to the newsletter for exclusive access to the Yahoo Finance Breakfast Club.