draw ‘til you’re soreWelcome to the bog of Jessica Amber. Herein you’ll find my life, whatever Irandom stuff ’m getting up to. It’s usually creative.
Unmaintained since 2019. Please go to www.jessicaamber.com.au This site contains affiliate links.
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12/10/2018 1 Comment Tax With Me: Part 3Last Time... On the 15th of August, I just completed the long process to find out whether the Personal Services Income (PSI) rules applied to me. Short answer: They do. Let's continue! Logging back in to MyTax...The progress I've already made on my tax return is still here waiting for me (thank goodness), so I'll select Resume. Oh, once the new page loads, a popup appears asking me if I want my previous session resumed. Definitely clicking Yes here.
Here are the rest of the boxes on this page. I do not have any foreign income, leave that blank. 'Other income not listed above', I didn't really know what that entailed, so I followed the link. Here is the info I found: Other Income:Employee Share SchemesThis is money earned by you or an associate through:
Bonuses from Life Insurance Companies and Friendly SocietiesThere are a lot of restrictive conditions here. Read more at: www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/myTax/2018/In-detail/Bonuses-from-life-insurance-companies-and-friendly-societies/?=redirected
Forestry Managed Investment Scheme Income (FMIS)Read more at: www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/myTax/2018/In-detail/Forestry-managed-investment-scheme-income/?=redirected
And...
So, after checking ALL of that, I have come to the conclusion that none of it applies to me. Phew. Back to our main list, let's consider deductions. Deductible deductadollarydoosInitially the work-related expenses box has been checked, but after taking this process with me you'll probably recognise that my income is not salary or wage based, so I'll be un-checking that one. Next is Gifts, donations, interest, dividends, and the cost of managing your tax affairs. Deductions for gifts are claimed by the person that makes the gift (the donor). So considering I have not given gifts to any organisation, this does not apply to me. (More info on gifts can be found at www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Deductions-you-can-claim/Gifts-and-donations/ I did earn some interest in the 17-18 financial year, but it was the whopping sum of 29 cents. Not worth claiming. And finally, since I'm doing this process myself rather than having an accountant do it, there is no cost of having my tax affairs managed. All in all, definitely marking that box empty. Income protection, sickness, and accident insurance premiums. I'm not employed, doesn't apply to me, leave it blank, next! Other deductions.. What are these? Well, they can include:
I did not know a Working with Children Check (WCC) could be deducted! I got one of those a few years ago when I was doing admin work in a daycare. Not relevant now, but good to know, considering it was around A$90. None of these apply to me, so once again, blank box. So none of the sub-boxes for deductions have been checked. However, I think I should leave the major box checked because I did have equipment, software and stuff that helped me in my artistic work that I could probably claim a deduction on. So I will leave that box checked. Last two points...You had tax losses of earlier income years. As far as I can see (and referring to www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/myTax/2018/In-detail/Tax-losses-of-earlier-income-years/?=redirected ), this would only apply if my taxable income was $0 last financial year. Which is not the case, so I'll leave that box blank. And lastly, You are claiming tax offsets, adjustments, or a credit for early payment. What are offsets? They can reduce the amount of tax you have to pay, if you meet certain conditions. These include:
As far as receiving government benefits, you only get the offset if it is your only source of income, which does not apply to me. For low-income earners, it is applied if your taxable income is less than $66,667. And you don't actually have to claim this offset, the ATO will do it automatically! Which means I can leave this box unchecked. This page is done! So I'll click Next. Stage 4: Prepare ReturnSome information was pre-filled for me into this page. Specifically, my earnings from Youth Allowance. Yay! The hover text next to Payment summaries says: Include allowances, tips, bonuses, commissions, director fees, employment termination payments etc. As far as I can tell, Payment summaries only applies to government payouts. The help text on the right, when looking at that category, only gives info on government payouts like Youth Allowance, Austudy, pensions, etc. The only thing I'm having trouble with here is that the stated Youth Allowance amount is about two thousand dollars lower than my personal finance spreadsheet states. I clicked Add/Edit next to Payment Summaries to see if it would provide a list of each YA payment. But no, it only gives it again as a lump figure. But I can edit it. I'm not sure if I should. I mean, their record keeping should be more accurate than mine, right? I don't know. Fine, I'll bite the bullet and edit it. I think I am right. Business/Sole Trader, Partnership and Trust IncomeThe next thing for me to do is Add/Edit for my sole trader income.
Did you receive 80% or more of your PSI from one source? Okay, I do remember this question, and the answer is No, so I'll need to change that box. Did I satisfy the unrelated clients test? My results say No. Answering no brings up additional questions: Now I am asked what is my main business or professional activity. I'm... not sure what mine is. They let you type in a word and then they provide suggestions, but typing art didn't seem to bring me the results I wanted. So instead I went to: www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/myTax/2018/In-detail/Business-and-professional-items/?anchor=completingyourbusinessdetails#mainbusiness which covers completing your business details. It then linked me to: www.ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/Business-industry-code-tool/AnzsicCoder.aspx, which is a business industry code search tool. In this, I typed in Art, and browsed a list of results too long to count where any fragment of the word art was displayed. From there, I found the following 2 classifications, which seems to apply to me in terms of doing art commission work and website design respectively: 69240 Other Specialised Design ServicesThis class consists of units mainly engaged in providing specialised design services not elsewhere classified. Exclusions/references: Units mainly engaged in
Primary Activities
70000 Computer System Design and Related ServicesThis class consists of units mainly engaged in providing expertise in the field of information technologies such as writing, modifying, testing or supporting software to meet the needs of a particular consumer; or planning and designing computer systems that integrate computer hardware, software and communication technologies. Exclusions/references Units mainly engaged in
Primary Activities
However, this is not selectable in the myTax activity selector!! The closest I could get is creative and performing arts activities. Hmph. The ATO do have a list of substitutions where the official code isnt in myTax. And that table includes my item! Other Specialised Design Services >>>> Architectural, Engineering and Technical Services So maybe I should select that instead. It seems less accurate to me, but it is what they want me to do. Number of business activities The instruction for this section is; Enter the number of separate and distinct business activities you operated as a sole trader and in partnership during 2017–18. The number of business activities you show here should not be less than the number you show at Loss details. I think I only have 2 distinct business activities, which are:
Business Payment SummariesI'm not sure what this is! The hover text for this section states the following: Enter personal services attributed income in the Salary, wages or other income on a payment summary, or Australian Governments payment section. Following a help link, I found this statement: (A business-related payment summary) may include work you obtained through an agency such as employment agency or labour hire firm. Source: www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/myTax/2018/In-detail/Business-payment-summaries/?=redirected If you click the Add button, you will be presented with the following screen: You will be required to enter the payer's name and ABN. For the payment type, there are 4 to select from:
To find the information I needed for this - my one Airtasker job - I logged into Airtasker and looked at my Payment History page. This has all the information I need except the payment type. I am assuming it is Labour hire, One other thing to mention at this point - the myTax system only allows whole dollar amounts. This page: www.ato.gov.au/Rates/PAYG-withholding-2013-14/Schedule-11---HELP-weekly-tax-table/?page=3 confirms that amounts should be rounded to the nearest dollar. After I enter the Type as Labour hire, another box appears for Reportable employer super contribution. There is none for me, as far as I know. I entered my figures (since myTax asked for gross income, I gave the gross figure, even though that includes a service fee to Airtasker). Personal Service IncomeI guess this is where I'll be entering all the other commission job earning! The figures from the Business payment summaries section have been filled in automatically. I am then simply asked to fill the Other box with my other income. Which I proceeded to do. I am then asked if there are any deductions. What can be deductions? Let's find out! What deductions you may be able to claimSubject to specific exceptions, the general rule is that you may claim an amount that is incurred in gaining or producing your PSI if you could claim that amount if the income was payable to you as an employee. The following are examples of items you may be able to claim a deduction for:
So in a spreadsheet, I added up things that I believed were deductible. For me, that was three iPad apps that I use 50% of the time for work-related purposes. That ended up totalling $17. Hey big spender. I don't believe I have any deductions for payments to associates for principal work because I don't have any associates! Loss DetailsThe hover text for this section says: Enter losses from business activities conducted as a partner in a partnership or as a sole trader, What are the conditions for having a loss? You're about to find out! Complete this section if you have a loss:
I'm assuming I don't have any losses to mention. (I'm still not 100% clear what a loss is, unless it's simply earning less than you spend.) So I'm going to leave that section alone. In which case, we are done with this page! Save and continue! Last Checks and SummariesIncome testsAccording to the ATO... We use income tests to work out if you:
I am getting tired, I've been at this for hours, I'm pretty sure none of these apply to me, what's next? Medicare and Private Health Insurance
I don't apply for reduction, I don't have private health insurance. I did this form myself (very obviously) and I assume I'll do more in the future? I think one example of not needing to do returns in the future would be, if you were leaving the country permanently; My Refund?I never expected to actually get a refund, but here we are! Supposedly $3 dollarydoos are coming back into old Jess' pockets! Yay! One last box to tick, declaring I'm telling the truth about everything. And then, my gosh, am I actually done???? Yes!!!!!!!!!!! I'm done!!!!!!!!! Thank frickin' frackin' gosh. Kids, adults, everyone, please keep good records during the year, it makes the process so much quicker. Take lots of breaks, strecth, walk, beacause my back hurts terribly after all of this.
I hope this series has been at least a tiny bit helpful to you. Good luck tax-ing!
1 Comment
Ayumi
5/9/2019 12:14:42 am
Hi Jess,
Reply
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AuthorI'm just some Aussie 20-something year old with a lot of time and a lot of interests. Archives
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