An ATO guide to the 5 most common tax time mistakes

As tax time 2018 kicks off, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has profiled the five most common mistakes and the personalities most likely to have tax time troubles.

Assistant Commissioner Kath Anderson said it was often simple mistakes and misunderstandings that tripped people up.

“While we know most people want to get it right, our audits and reviews show that there are five main areas where taxpayers are most likely to get it wrong.”

The top five mistakes include taxpayers who are:

• Leaving out some of their income – maybe forgetting a temp job or money earned from the sharing economy
• Claiming deductions for personal expenses – home to work travel, normal clothes or personal phonecalls
• Forgetting to keep receipts or records of their expenses
• Claiming for something they never paid for – often because they think everyone is entitled to a “standard deduction”
• Claiming personal expenses for rental properties – either claiming deductions for times when they are using their property themselves or are claiming interest on loans used to buy personal assets like a car or boat.

Ms Anderson says many of the mistakes are avoidable and there are a few things taxpayers can do to make sure their tax time experience is stress-free.

“Know what you can legitimately claim. There are three golden rules for work-related expenses: you must have spent the money yourself and not have been reimbursed, it must be directly related to earning your income, and you must have a record to prove it.

“Around half of the adjustments we make are because the taxpayer had no records, or they were poor quality. Yet it’s so easy to keep your records, using the myDeductions tool in the ATO app. Just take a photo, record a few details and then at the end of the year upload the information to your agent or to myTax.”

Another tip is to include all your income, which includes capital gains on cryptocurrency, or money earned from the sharing economy.