The ATO will acquire officeholder data from  ASIC and other bodies for the 2024 to 2027 income years, including name, address, date of birth, ABN, contact details, organisation details and officeholder details.

The ATO estimates that records relating to more than 11 million individuals will be obtained.

The ATO will acquire property management data from property management software companies for the 2019 to 2026 income years, including property owner identification details, property details, and property transaction details.

The ATO estimates that records relating to approximately 2.3 million individuals will be obtained each financial year.

The ATO will acquire lifestyle assets data from insurance providers for the 2024 to 2026 income years.

Insurance policy data will be collected for the following classes of assets, where the asset value is equal to or exceeds the nominated thresholds.

The data items include client identification details (names, addresses, contact details, dates of birth and ABN) and policy details (including total value insured, description and purchase price of the property insured).

The ATO estimates that the total number of policy records obtained will be approximately 650,000 to 800,000 each financial year, and that approximately 250,000 to 350,000 matched records will relate to individuals.

The ATO is calling on workers to check if they are missing superannuation savings after the latest data showed it was holding $17.8 billion in lost and unclaimed funds.

If you’ve changed jobs, moved house or simply forgotten to update your details, you may have lost or unclaimed super.

Lost super occurs when members have lost contact with their fund or the member’s account has been inactive for some time.

By law, the fund is required to transfer certain accounts to the ATO, which then becomes unclaimed super.

Even if you’ve retired you could have lost or unclaimed super.

The super health check includes step-by-step instructions on how to search for lost and ATO held super on ATO online services through myGov.

It consists of 5 simple checks to manage your super, search for lost super and prevent your super becoming lost.

You can check your:

• contact details
• super balance and employer contributions
• lost and unclaimed super
• multiple accounts and consider consolidating
• nominated beneficiary.

To start, download the super health check (NAT 75486, PDF 204KB)

Since January, nearly 80% of all scams reported to the ATO relate to emails. While scams are becoming more sophisticated, there are red flags you can share to help your employees quickly spot a fake email.

Remind your employees to:

• look out for messages containing a link that asks you to login to a government service such as myGov. The ATO recently removed all hyperlinks in unsolicited, outbound SMS, so if you’ve received a message from the ATO that contains a link, it’s a scam.
• be careful of requests for personal or financial information, especially if they claim to be urgent or time sensitive. The ATO will never ask for passwords, account numbers, or other sensitive data via email, SMS or unsolicited phone calls.
• be wary of downloading attachments or opening email links. They can infect your computer with malware and lead to your business’s information being stolen and used to commit fraud.
• watch out for unusual transactions or interactions on your accounts. If you’re unsure whether contact from the ATO is genuine, don’t engage with it and verify it. You can also look at the ATO’s scam alerts.

Many people who have a scam experience never report it. By reporting and sharing your ATO scam experience, you’re helping others see the warning signs and avoid these scams themselves.

If you see a suspicious email claiming to be from the ATO, send it to reportscams@ato.gov.au.

For more information, visit ato.gov.au/scams.

This program aims to create commercial opportunities for innovative Queensland businesses by connecting them to corporates and providing a risk-managed process to explore and co-fund solutions to corporate challenges. An innovative solution can include new or significantly improved products, processes or systems; or by applying existing products, processes or systems in a novel way.

The benefits of the program for Queensland businesses include:

• access to Advanced QLD funding to trial technologies with corporates;
• create connections with corporates and potential commercial contracts;
• opportunity to pivot products or services to new sectors;
• retain intellectual property; and
• building credibility by having corporate customers.

This program uses a staged process, designed to manage risk while providing a straightforward pathway for trailing Queensland-developed solutions.

Funding Available:

Matching Funding of up to $50,000.

Eligibility:

• have an ABN (Australian Business Number) registered in Queensland;
• be registered for GST (Goods and Services Tax);
• be an established Queensland-based startup or small to medium enterprise (SME) with full-time equivalent employees (FTE) below 200;
• have a minimal viable product being developed in Queensland; and
• not have had previous commercial contracts from the participating corporate.

Tender specifications:
Rather than seeking a specific product or service, the PSP Program focuses on what the challenge is and invites Queensland businesses to propose how they think it could be solved.
Instead of tender specifications, PSP challenges are outcome focussed, and set out what a solution should deliver, and what technical and/or regulatory requirements a solution needs to meet.

How to apply
Applications are submitted online, through the SmartyGrants platform- https://advance.qld.gov.au/grants-and-programs/jan/private-sector-pathways-program

Find out more
Any questions should be directed to the Private Sector Partnerships team at partnerships@dtis.qld.gov.au.

The ATO is reminding investors who purchased new shares in a qualifying ‘early stage innovation company’ (‘ESIC’) that they may be eligible for tax incentives.

These tax incentives provide eligible investors who purchase new shares in an ESIC with:

• a non-refundable carry forward tax offset equal to 20% of the amount paid for their eligible investments – this is capped at a maximum tax offset amount of $200,000 for the investor and their affiliates combined in each income year; and
• modified capital gains tax (‘CGT’) treatment, under which capital gains on qualifying shares that are continuously held for at least 12 months and less than 10 years may be disregarded – capital losses on shares held less than 10 years must be disregarded.

The maximum tax offset cap of $200,000 does not limit the shares that qualify for the modified CGT treatment.

Additional tax liabilities may arise when money or assets of a foreign trust are paid to a taxpayer or applied for their benefit, and they are a beneficiary of the foreign trust.  These can include:

• loans to them by the trustee directly or indirectly through another entity;
• amounts paid by the trustee to a third party on their behalf;
• amounts that are described as gifts from family members, but are sourced from the trust; and
• distributions paid to them or trust assets (such as shares) transferred to them by the trustee.

Taxpayers who receive money from a foreign trust  may need to ask further questions to determine whether the amount must be included in their assessable income, including:

• whether they are a beneficiary of the foreign trust;
• where the foreign trust obtained the money; and
• why the money was paid to them, e.g., is it a payment for services, a gift, a distribution or a loan.

Taxpayers need to consider what work-related expenses they will be looking to claim in the new financial year, and what records they will need to substantiate those deductions.

Records can be kept as a paper version, an electronic copy, or a ‘true and clear’ photo of an original record.

Working from home deductions

Taxpayers can use two different methods to calculate their working from home deductions, and they each have different requirements:

• With the fixed rate method, taxpayers will need a record of the actual number of hours they worked from home for the whole financial year, and at least one record for each of the additional running expenses they incurred that the rate includes (e.g., an electricity bill).
• To use the actual cost method, taxpayers must also keep records for any additional running expenses they incurred, and the depreciating assets they bought and used while working from home, and show how they apportioned work-related use for their expenses and depreciating assets.

Please contact our office if you need any assistance with your record keeping requirements, such as logbook requirements for car expenses.

GST classification errors can lead to significant under-reporting of GST for some taxpayers.

The ATO recently issued guidance for small to medium businesses on self-reviewing GST classification of food and health products.

The use of this guide is not mandatory, although the ATO encourages small to medium businesses to regularly self-review the GST classification of supplies, and adopt better practice processes and controls as listed in the accompanying checklist.

Small business food retailers with turnover of $2 million or less may use one of the ‘GST simplified accounting methods’ to account for GST instead.

The checklist provides practical, step-by-step guidance for entities to:

• self-review the GST classification of their supplies (products they import, purchase as stock or produce for sale); and
• assess the robustness of their business systems, processes and controls that directly impact their GST classification systems.

The Federal Court has recently overturned an Administrative Appeals Tribunal (‘AAT’) decision that a taxpayer was a resident of Australia for tax purposes (even though he was mostly living and working overseas during the relevant period).

The taxpayer was a mechanical engineer who became an Australian citizen in 1978.

He lived and worked in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from September 2015 until 2020, and he spent less than two months in Australia for each of the 2017 to 2020 income years visiting his family.

The AAT nevertheless held that he was a tax resident of Australia for each of the 2016 to 2020 income years, as he “maintained an intention to return to Australia and an attitude that Australia remained his home.”

On appeal to the Federal Court, the taxpayer succeeded in having the AAT’s decision overturned.

The Federal Court held, in considering whether the taxpayer was a resident of Australia according to ‘ordinary concepts’, that the AAT applied the wrong test, confusing it with the ‘domicile test’.

Also, in relation to the ‘domicile test’, the Federal Court noted that the AAT further misunderstood how to establish that a person had a ‘permanent place of abode’ outside of Australia.

The Federal Court accordingly held that the taxpayer’s appeal be allowed, and the matter be remitted to the AAT for determination according to law (i.e., the AAT needs to reconsider the matter).

Rebates of up to $12,500 are available for eligible businesses which purchase (and install if required) eligible energy-efficient equipment. Eligible businesses must spend a minimum of $8,000 (GST exclusive) on the purchase and installation of the equipment.

The rebate is 50% of the purchase and installation costs (GST exclusive) of the eligible equipment. For example, if you spent $10,000 (GST inclusive) on eligible equipment, you can claim 50% of the GST exclusive amount ($9,090.90 ex GST) and would receive a rebate payment of $4,545.45.

Only 1 rebate is available for each eligible business. However, a rebate application can consist of multiple, eligible energy-efficient equipment items, provided the total rebate amount does not exceed $12,500.

To be eligible, businesses must:

• have an Australian business number (ABN)
• be registered for goods and services tax (GST)
• not be a company within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001
• have headquarters in QLD and be operating from premises in QLD
• employ at least 2, but no more than 199 full-time (or equivalent) employees (including the business owner).

You must demonstrate that the eligible equipment will lead to savings on the energy use and bills of your business, as well as contribute to the Queensland Government’s carbon reduction targets. There is no minimum savings amount – all improvements in energy efficiency help.

Use the energy rebate and savings calculator to show your savings – you will need to keep a copy of the estimated savings results. You can also use the calculator to see which energy-efficient equipment may provide you with the greatest savings before you purchase your equipment.

To find out more, go to: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/energy-business/energy-efficiency-rebate