2024 Tax Time: What’s new and what the ATO is looking at closely

Every year the ATO makes changes to their tax returns and announce the key areas that they will be looking into. As we start another tax season, it’s important to understand and be aware of what is going to keep the ATO happy but also what is going to get you back the best result.

The good news first - for those of us claiming work-related car expenses using the cents per kilometre method, this has increased to 85 cents per kilometre for the 2024 tax return up from 78 cents for the 2023 year. It’s important to note that this only relates to fuel run vehicles. If you have an electric vehicle, you can claim 4.2 cents per kilometre. It’s important that you kept adequate records during the 2024 tax year to ensure that the deduction is allowed.

The widely publicised tax cuts have now come in however these changes won’t impact the 2024 tax return.

Now for the bad news – the ATO has flagged three focus areas where they will be paying extra attention to. In 2023, around 4 million people claimed working from home deductions. The ATO has stressed it will not be a good idea to ’copy and paste’ the same as last year. If you haven’t kept the right records, your claim will likely be disallowed.

Rental properties are always in the ATO spotlight and 2024 is no different. The same oversights are being made taxpayers around repairs and maintenance where expenses that should be depreciated are being claim outright as a deduction. Again, it’s important to ensure that you have thorough records of these costs when completing your return to ensure we can make the correct decision around the tax treatment.

Thirdly, make sure all of your income is correct when providing to us for completion. The ATO is still seeing missing interest income, dividend income and private health information. With improved data matching available to the ATO, anything missed will be picked up by the ATO and amendments will be required. Data provided by managed funds may not be available until August or September. Please keep this in mind if applicable to you.

As always, if you are ever in doubt around what the requirements are in completing your tax return correctly, please speak with us as soon as possible. Our website has multiple resources available to assist you in ensuring you get the best result.