ATO Updates

ATO doubles rental deduction audits

By May 14, 2019 November 22nd, 2019 No Comments
ATO doubles rental deduction audits

In the 2017-18 financial year, more than 2.2 million Australians claimed over $47 billion in deductions and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) thinks that is too much – one in ten is estimated to contain errors.

4,500 audits of rental property deductions will be undertaken this year with the focus on over-claimed interest, capital works claimed as repairs, incorrect apportionment of expenses for holiday homes let out to others, and omitted income from accommodation sharing. Deliberate cases of over-claiming are treated harshly with penalties of up to 75% of the claim.  In one case exposed by the ATO, a taxpayer had to pay back $12,000 in claims for deductions against a holiday home that was not genuinely available for rent and was blocked out during the holiday season. In another, a taxpayer paid back $5,500 because they had not apportioned their rental interest deduction to account for redraws on their investment loan to pay for living expenses.

 

HTA

HTA

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