Don't leave it too late to lodge your tax

If you haven’t got around to lodging your tax return yet there is still time to do so, but accountants are encouraging people to not leave it to the last minute. If you’re lodging your own tax return, you need to lodge it by 31 October each year. If 31 October falls on a weekend, the due date to lodge your tax return is the next business day. If you choose to use the services of a registered tax agent, they can lodge returns for clients later than 31 October, though if you're using a registered tax agent you need to engage them before the end of the month. ITP accountant Letitia Skillen encourages people to lodge sooner rather than later. "Most individuals are really encouraged to get in before the end of October if they can," she said. Among the most common pitfalls of individuals when they lodge their returns are not keeping any receipts for things they want to claim. She encourages people to take photos of receipts and save it to a dedicated folder in case the physical receipts are lost or fade over time. "The tax office are really making sure that people have to have proof and they have got the receipts," Letitia said. If you don’t have them, Letitia said the tax office will accept bank transactions as evidence if it clearly supports the claim. "Obviously in the first instance having receipts for everything you want to claim and having proof of whatever you want to claim is the best thing," she said. People claiming offsets for driving personal vehicles more than 5000 km for work or offsets for home office are also required to have good records across the whole financial year. Letitia said you also need to justify that you had to spend the money to do your job. "If you can't justify that you need to do that in your job and have proof, you can't really [claim] it," she said. If people think they are going to have a tax bill, Letitia encourages them to not procrastinate in doing their return as the due date won't move. "I usually encourage people, especially if they think they are going to get a tax bill to get in a little early," she said. While getting a tax bill isn't fun, Letitia said the tax office is usually accommodating with setting up payment plans. "The tax office are really good, they give you a reasonable amount of time [to pay]. For most people, they are due around April," she said. For more information about managing your tax returns, head online to the Australian Taxation Office's website at www.ato.gov.au.