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Australian Tax Questions Answered for EOFY Every year, the same questions land in our inbox, and a few new ones too. Rather than answer them one at a time, we've pulled together the most common questions from listeners and clients and answered them all in one place. At Aevum Accounting, we'd rather bust a myth before it costs you money than fix it after the fact. Here's what people are actually asking us this EOFY. Our Client's Experience: Ben has been my accountant for year

Tax Deductions for Police Officers in Australia Most police officers have heard a version of tax advice from someone in the lunchroom. Some of it's right. A lot of it isn't, and the wrong half either costs you a deduction you were entitled to or sets you up for an ATO audit down the track. At Aevum Accounting, we work with officers across the force, and the same myths come up again and again, particularly around fitness, grooming, and equipment. This guide busts the biggest o

PSI Tax Rules for Consultants in Australia If you're a high-earning IT contractor, management consultant, engineer, or professional firm partner, there's a persistent myth doing the rounds: set up a company or family trust, funnel your income through it, and your tax rate magically caps out at 25% or 30%. Some go further and assume they can split that income with a lower-earning spouse to dodge the top marginal bracket entirely. At Aevum Accounting, this is one of the most da

Navigating the most significant compliance shake-up in 25 years: a practical action plan for the staggered tax timelines heading your way Handed down on 12 May 2026, Treasurer Jim Chalmers' Budget has been called the most significant transformation of Australia's tax system in a quarter of a century. The 2026-27 Federal Budget Australia rewrites the rules for capital gains, negative gearing, family trusts, and everyday deductions, with staggered start dates running from July

Audit-proofing your generosity: how to safely navigate the narrow boundaries between claimable teaching resources and denied private costs Teachers spend more of their own money on their classrooms than almost any other profession in Australia. The heartbreak comes at tax time, when generous spending on students, sports gear, and home office set-ups gets knocked back by the ATO for reasons most teachers never see coming. At Aevum Accounting, we lodge a lot of teacher tax retu

Break free from the bank balance illusion by constructing an untouchable, automated cash shield for your quarterly liabilities If you log into your bank app and see $50,000 in your operating account, you don't actually have $50,000. A meaningful chunk of that money belongs to the ATO. It's GST you've collected on behalf of the government and PAYG you've withheld from your staff's wages. Spend it, and you're not borrowing from yourself, you're borrowing from the tax office. At

The truth about modern healthcare bookkeeping: when automatic 'GST-free' software codes accidentally invite a severe compliance audit If you run a medical clinic and your accounting software is automatically coding every invoice as GST-free, you may be building a ticking compliance bomb. Healthcare is one of the most closely watched sectors by the ATO, and the assumption that "medical equals no GST" is the single biggest myth in clinic bookkeeping. At Aevum Accounting, we wor

Protecting your lifetime exit: how to utilise generous federal tax concessions while avoiding catastrophic family succession traps You only sell a business once. Get the tax strategy wrong, and you can hand a significant slice of your retirement straight to the ATO on a transaction worth million. At Aevum Accounting, we work with business owners across Australia who are starting to think about the end game: selling up, restructuring, or passing the business to the next genera

Don't let standard work equipment or unmanaged salary caps turn into an unexpected financial emergency this July. Responding to emergencies is hard enough without having to rescue your own tax return from the ATO at the end of the financial year. Get your tax strategy wrong, and you can accidentally hand over a massive chunk of your hard-earned income through missed claims or unexpected penalty traps. At Aevum Accounting, we manage tax returns for a substantial portion of the

With harsh new enforcement weapons actively deployed, putting your head in the sand is a direct threat to your family home. Treating the tax office as a friendly, flexible overdraft facility is officially over. Get your commercial cash flow strategy wrong in the current climate, and you can accidentally hand over your entire business operations or your personal family home straight to the collectors. At Aevum Accounting, we work with small business owners across Australia who

The strategic cash flow blueprint for converting mandatory tax bills and operational overheads into premium corporate travel perks. Settling substantial commercial supplier invoices or massive quarterly tax bills often drains your vital operational cash flow. To make matters worse, most traditional banking institutions have completely blocked or heavily capped the generation of credit card points on government expenses, leaving business owners entirely unrewarded for their la

Payday Super 2026 Australian Employer Obligations If you currently pay your employees' superannuation quarterly, you have less than four months to prepare for one of the biggest changes to Australian payroll in a decade. On 1 July 2026, Payday Super becomes law. For some businesses, it's a software update and an admin adjustment. For businesses that have been treating the quarterly super window as a working capital buffer, it's a fundamental change to how the money flows. Eit

Non-commercial loss rules: Australian side hustle tax It seems like it should be simple. You lost money on your side business, so the ATO should help cover some of that by reducing the tax on your regular income. The logic is sound. The problem is the ATO has a specific set of rules that exist to stop exactly that from happening for most people. They're called the non-commercial loss rules, and they're designed to prevent the tax office from effectively funding hobbies, passi

Tax Deductions for Nurses in Australia As a nurse or midwife, you are one of the true heroes of our community. You run on caffeine and compassion, handling a demanding, high-stakes career at all hours of the day and night. The last thing you need after a long shift is a complicated tax return. At Aevum Accounting, we specialise in providing financial first aid. We've helped countless healthcare professionals navigate their unique tax situation, and we've built this essential

Tax Deductions for Medical Professionals in Australia As a doctor, specialist, or medical professional, you work in a high-pressure, high-stakes environment. It’s also no secret that these are some of the highest-earning professions in the country. With that high income comes a high degree of financial complexity and, if not managed correctly, a very significant tax bill. The more you earn, the more critical it is to have a robust strategy. We've built our reputation on provi

Debt recycling: Australia tax deductible mortgage For most Australians, the home mortgage just sits there costing money. You make payments every month, the bank keeps the interest, and the ATO gives you nothing. That's what accountants call bad debt: money owed on a personal asset that generates no income and no tax benefit. Debt recycling is a strategy that changes what your debt is doing, without changing how much of it you have. Done carefully, it converts your non-deducti

As a police officer or detective, you do an incredibly tough and vital job for our community. Here's how to maximise your tax deductions if you're police in Australia.

FBT exemptions salary packaging Australia The last two articles were heavy going. We covered school fees that cost $37,000 to pay, phantom income pushing employees into HECS repayments, and golf days that quietly attract a 47% tax. Not exactly cheerful reading. This one is different. FBT isn't only a compliance problem. Used properly, it's a planning tool. There are specific exemptions in the tax act that let you give staff laptops, electric vehicles, and meaningful gifts com

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is no longer just picking audit targets at random. With sophisticated data-matching, they are running a digital magnifying glass over every business tax return, looking for specific "danger labels" that flag a file for closer scrutiny.

Fringe Benefits Tax calculation Australia Last week, we went through the hard no list: school fees, gym memberships, golf days. This week we're pulling the engine apart. The reason FBT catches so many people off guard isn't the tax rate itself, it's the way the ATO calculates the number you're taxed on. Once you understand that, the rest starts to make sense. We'll also cover the car logbook (which can save you thousands every year) and a less-talked-about consequence of acce