Yahoo Finance ATO trick to avoid common $341 tax headache: 'Do it now'
The ATO app allows you to record your deductions throughout the year and could save you time on your tax return.
An Aussie mum has shared a simple way to save time on your next tax return and ensure you are claiming all your deductions. Lost receipts cost Aussies around $7 billion in unclaimed tax deductions each year, or around $341 each.
Tax Invest Accounting director and registered tax agent Belinda Raso told Yahoo Finance not keeping receipts was one of the “biggest mistakes” she sees Aussies making each tax time. She recommended people who buy items for work take a photo of the receipt, even if they aren’t sure if it is claimable, so they have a record of everything they have purchased.
“Say to yourself, ‘If I didn’t have this job or didn’t have this business, would I have gone out and bought that?’ And in most cases it’s going to be a claimable deduction,” Raso said.
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North Queensland mum Millie urged Aussies to download the ATO app if they haven’t already and take advantage of the myDeductions tool. This allows you to keep and organise your tax records throughout the year.
“If you download this app, you can automatically put your deductions and whatnot in as the year goes through,” she said.
She shared that she recently purchased a $2,199 iPad for her work-from-home teaching job and added this to the app, including the amount, the transaction date, a picture of the receipt and a description of the expense.
“At the end of this financial year when it comes time to do your tax return, you can automatically take all of this data and put it onto your tax return so you don’t have to go through and upload all your receipts one by one for everything that you are claiming,” she said.
“Do it now so it is ready at the end of the financial year.”
Do you have a tax story to share? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com
Warning to ‘keep a backup’
Raso said the ATO app was a great tool to use throughout the year but she recommended people keep a back-up of their records.
“If you log into a different device, it all gets wiped. So you need to keep a backup,” Raso told Yahoo Finance.
The Australian Taxation Office also recommended people back-up their data regularly in case their device is broken, lost or stolen and noted “this isn’t an automatic process”.
“Records you add are stored locally on your device and are only sent to us if you upload your completed records to your tax return,” the ATO said.
Once you finalise your records for your tax return, you can email your data either to yourself or your tax agent, or upload your data to pre-fill your tax return whether you do your taxes yourself or use a tax agent.
The ATO app is available from Google Play and the App Store. You can access myDeductions from the quick link on the ATO app home screen without needing to log in.
Alternatively, Raso said people could take a photo of receipts and save it on their phone under ‘Tax 2025’.
“Most people lose their receipts and they’ll forget everything they can claim. There’s no way you can remember what you purchased last August or months prior,” she said.
Regardless of how you keep your records, taxpayers will need to keep them for five years from the date you lodge your return.
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