In The Media - The Age - Detective work

It’s easy to miss claims in the lead-up to June 30 …

In Barbara Drury’s article appearing in  The Age on May 28, she revisited the year-end coverage of tax claims – in particular those most frequently forgotten. The following is an extract from that article, outlining Taxpayers Australia CEO, Tony Greco’s views on some of these often over-looked items. 

Charitable Donations

The chief executive of Taxpayers Australia, Tony Greco, says there is no upper limit on the amount of donations you can claim a deduction for – but you can’t use a large donation to create a tax loss.

You can claim a full deduction for gifts of money, shares valued at $5000 or less and bought at least 12 months before the gift was made, and property bought in the 12 months before donation. However, if you donate money and receive goods or services in return, you can’t claim a tax deduction.

Franking Credits

You own a few Telstra shares and receive franked dividends but you can’t claim the imputation credits because you don’t earn enough to lodge a tax return. Right? Wrong, Greco says.

He says a lot of people don’t lodge tax returns because their income falls below the $6000 tax-free threshold but they can still claim their imputation credits.

If you are in this position, you need to get your hands on an “application for the refund of franking credits for individuals,” either by downloading one from the Tax Office site or phoning 1300 720 092 and asking them to send the form in the mail.

“For every $70 of dividend income, there’s a $30 {of imputation credits} going begging,” Greco says.

Mature Age Worker Tax Offset

The mature age worker tax offset (Editor’s note: Over 55 at the end of the tax year and still working) is another recently introduced benefit that Greco says people may not be aware of yet.

If you are eligible, you will receive 5 cents in the dollar for every dollar earned up to a maximum tax offset of $500. The amount begins to taper off at a rate of 5 cents in the dollar on income above $53,000 and reduces to nil once your income reaches $63,000.

The Age
Wednesday May 28, 2008
Detective Work
By Barbara Drury