Personal Income Tax (PIT) season is often a nightmare rush of catch-up, trying to capture and find invoices, mileage and other expenses! Now that we\u2019re approaching March, start good habits that will make your next tax return that much easier and more rewarding in terms of returns.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll be grateful you did…<\/p>\n
Why everyone hates tax so much<\/strong> Start a travel log now<\/strong> Another option for those of us more paperless is to take a screenshot of your odometer at the start and end of each work day and save these in a special folder on your phone.<\/p>\n Remember, you are not required to pay any<\/em> tax on business travel expenses. That can get you a healthy rebate, as can declaring your amount of travel allowance given to you by an employer, as long as you\u2019re not reimbursed more than 355 cents per kilometre which, let\u2019s face it, most of us aren\u2019t. That\u2019s good money spent that you can get back from the taxman, as long as you keep a good record of it being for work-related travel.<\/p>\n Start tracking receipts now<\/strong> Another good practice is to keep a folder in your office and car for every single receipt you accrue for work. Put everything in and use as this folder as a backup reference. Then, ask for your receipt to be emailed to you and keep that digital copy of the receipt as well<\/em>. A good way to do this is simply to create a folder in your email purely for tax receipts and file things in there as soon as they come in.<\/p>\n Remember – do it that moment; it\u2019s amazing how quickly we can forget. A bonus is that you\u2019ll accrue much less paper clutter in your wallet, your car, laptop bag, handbag\u2026 definitely a win.<\/p>\n Because things slip through the gaps, it may also be good to set aside 20 minutes once a week \u2013 book it in your diary as if it were a meeting \u2013 and go over your work expenses for the week and check whether all of them are accounted for.<\/p>\n Think about using a tax professional, and keep them in the loop<\/strong> All these tips sound miniscule and so obvious, but that\u2019s exactly the point: small changes do add up and, if you look after the pennies, the pounds really do look after themselves.<\/p>\n Try it and see. You\u2019ll thank us next tax season, promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Personal Income Tax (PIT) season is often a nightmare rush of catch-up, trying to capture and find invoices, mileage and other expenses! Now that we\u2019re approaching March, start good habits that will make your next tax return that much easier and more rewarding in terms of returns. You\u2019ll be grateful you did… Why everyone hates tax so much Imagine yourself digging through a haystack to find a specific needle ten times in a row\u2026 that\u2019s most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nImagine yourself digging through a haystack to find a specific needle ten times in a row\u2026 that\u2019s most people\u2019s experience of filing tax returns. Because your information is not organised with your next tax return in mind every day or week, it\u2019s that much harder eleven months on. Try to reduce the amount of needles lost in the haystack – or avoid the haystack entirely. Here are some tips to help you record the correct information – but please note that these are general guides. For proper tax advice, please get in touch.<\/p>\n
\nThis is one of the real pet peeves and where most people throw good money that they could\u2019ve had in rebates away \u2013 their work-driving mileage. Keep a little A5 notebook in the car with you as a logbook and, each day, track your kilometres.<\/p>\n
\nIf you\u2019re going to track your work driving for tax, you\u2019re going to need to keep your petrol purchase slips. So, while we\u2019re at it, let\u2019s talk about receipt-keeping.<\/p>\n
\nA good accountant is with worth their weight in\u2026 well, tax rebates. However, handing over a mountain of receipts and logbooks once a year, just before tax deadline, is stressful for both you and them. A better way? Have a shared system where you can put stuff in immediately \u2013 a shared folder on Google Drive is a neat solution \u2013 so that your meeting the month you need to file your return is painless or, better yet, not even necessary. One less thing to do!<\/p>\n