Accounting

BUDGET SPECIAL

The cuts are now personal

John Collett The 2013-14 federal budget delivered not that much for the personal finances of most people. It mostly deferred or scrapped tax breaks that had been promised, but not yet delivered, and so will...

Taxing 'super' rich a good idea badly handled

Richard Livingston The government has cottoned on to a fair point but they are struggling to articulate it.

Tax word

Mike Bannon In the last 50 years, Australia's best federal treasurers were Paul Keating and Peter Costello, especially for their ground-breaking work in superannuation.

GST overhaul inevitable and desirable, business groups stress

Madeleine Heffernan An overhaul of the goods and services tax is inevitable and might help raise living standards, business groups say.

Henry warning to lift revenue

Clancy Yeates State and federal governments must extract more tax revenue if they are to fund the nation's ballooning infrastructure needs in decades to come, former Treasury secretary Ken Henry says.

Mark Bouris

Where to put taxman's 'gift' depends on you

Mark Bouris Over the next few weeks, a lot of readers will be receiving tax refund cheques from the Australian Taxation Office.

Online tax drive

Barbara Drury It's that time of year when Australians start grumbling about giving up a Sunday to fill in their annual income tax return.

Relief when needed

I Can Do That The strategy: To work out whether I can benefit from the proposed ''carry-back'' provisions.

In the tax office sights

Annette Sampson More than 1500 people have been prosecuted by the Tax Office in the past year as it steps up its efforts to track down tax cheats.

Benefits of a safety net

Barbara Drury If you are thinking about income protection insurance, it could be financially worth your while to prepay a year's premiums before June 30 and bring forward a handy tax deduction.

Rental checklist

When it comes to claiming deductions, the Tax Office finds many landlords get it wrong because they don't know better.

Insight: tax agents

Insight It's often claimed Australians ''punch above their weight'' on the sporting field, but we also have a more dubious honour: our use of tax agents.

June 30 tax tips to save a bundle

Annette Sampson Another financial year done and dusted. Well, almost. With a little more than four weeks to go until June 30, it is high time to get in some last-minute tax planning.

Super rich 'may keep' insurance rebate

Madeleine Heffernan The wealthy might retain the rebate for health insurance through complex tax structures.

Prepare for your return

Annette Sampson The strategy: To get my things together to do this year's tax return.

Insight: tax

Clancy Yeates Now is about the time many people begin the yearly chore of digging out all those receipts and other papers needed to complete their tax returns.

New crackdown on offshore tax evasion

Philip Dorling The ATO is pushing for more powers to investigate secret tax havens and penalise offshore tax evasion.

Tax breaks for wealthy under fire

Adele Horin A crackdown on federal waste and unfair tax breaks is needed to fund social and economic reforms.

Comments 17

Tax number is a fraudster's friend

Alexandra Smith STOLEN tax file numbers have been used to lodge as many as 5000 fraudulent tax refunds worth $27 million in just three months, as identity criminals increasingly attempt to defraud government...