In a pre-Budget announcement, the Government has committed to a Small Business Energy Incentive Scheme that offers a bonus tax deduction of up to $20,000.
The Small Business Energy Incentive encourages small and medium businesses with an aggregated turnover of less than $50 million to invest in spending that supports “electrification” and more efficient use of energy.
Up to $100,000 of total expenditure will be eligible for the incentive, with the maximum bonus tax deduction of $20,000 per business. Eligible assets or upgrades will need to be first used or installed ready for use between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024 to qualify for the bonus deduction.
If your business is contemplating upgrading to improve energy efficiency, it’s worth waiting to see the detail of the proposal. We’ll bring you more details of the scheme and how your business might benefit as soon as they are released.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has launched a full-on assault on rental property owners who incorrectly report income and expenses.
The ATO’s assessment, based on previous data matching programs, is that there is a tax gap of around $1 billion from incorrect reporting of rental property income and expenses. And, they would like that back now please.
As a result, banks and other financial institutions will be required to hand the ATO residential investment loan data on an estimated 1.7 million rental property owners for the period from 2021-22 through to 2025-26.
The data collected will include:
- identification details (names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, etc.)
- account details (account numbers, BSB’s, balances, commencement and end dates, etc.)
- transaction details (transaction date, transaction amount etc.)
- property details (addresses, etc.)
In addition to identifying whether landlords are declaring their residential investment property income at all, the data matching program is looking specifically at how rental property loan interest and borrowing expense deductions have been reported in the rental property schedules, and whether net capital gains have been declared for property used to generate income.
Banks are not the only source of data. In a complimentary program, the ATO is targeting rental property management software. Over the last decade, much of the financial management of residential rental property has moved online, facilitated by various platform providers. The ATO will require these rental property software providers to provide details of property owners including their bank details, income, expenses and the amount of those expenses, and details of their associated rental properties and agents. Data collection of the estimated 1.6 million individuals in this data program will cover the period from 2018-19 to 2022-23.
