With the new financial year about to start, it’s tempting to sign up for investments that claim to reduce your tax bill. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is anxious to remind you that any scheme which appears to promise reduced tax with no risk is likely to be problematic.
Cost cutting picture from Shutterstock
“Tax avoidance schemes are no longer the blatant too good to be true offers seen in the past,” Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan warns. “Many modern tax avoidance schemes are complex structures that are difficult for even experienced investors to identify.”
“If you are getting back more money than you put in with no risk, and if no real goods or services are being provided, it is likely to be a tax avoidance scheme and could lead to significant tax penalties,” Jordan added in an ATO release.
Any tax-related decision benefits from independent advice — and that means having any scheme assessed by someone other than the person selling it to you.
Comments
3 responses to “Tread Cautiously With Tax Avoidance Schemes”
There’s an ad on TV from ISelect about health insurance – apparently I’ll be taxed more if I don’t take out a policy. Hur.
If you notice there is careful language about how you MAY pay more tax, i believe there is some text down the bottom that says “This is not tax advice, please speak to an accountant” or something similar.
They don’t mention that it depends on how much you earn and whether you already have hospital cover
People on high incomes that do not have private health insurance are liable to pay the medicare levy surcharge, which is 1-1.5% of your assessable income.
Most MIS ( Managed Investment Schemes) are just tax SCHEMES. Run Run away. The only ones to win are the promoter and lawyers and accountants who run them ( that said Im an Accountant)
You may win in the short term but long term – ie 2 plus years you will be in the whole as everything is clawed back and you sit there with a cell mate called BUBBA.
He will call you Ben and you wont know why “>.<” …