Tax Planning for Employees

Tax Planning Strategy 155 | Salary Packaging Associated Leases

16 November 2017

An associate lease is an agreement where an associate of the employee (typically spouse or partner), leases an existing or replacement car to the employee’s employer. The employer then provides the car to the employee via a pre-tax salary sacrifice arrangement. I.e. The employee pays for most of the vehicle’s operating costs from their pre-tax…

Tax Planning Strategy 189 | Increase Giving via Discretionary Trusts

18 October 2017

This strategy involves a discretionary trust making pre-tax trust distributions to a tax-exempt beneficiary. If the beneficiary is tax exempt (a not-for-profit organization or church) then there will be no income tax paid on that income by the beneficiary. The beneficiary does not need to be able to receive tax deductible donations (i.e. be a…

Tax Planning Strategy 77 | Change from Employee to Contractor

6 October 2017

Changing from employee to contractor (business) has the benefit of making some private expenses tax deductible. Expenses such as motor vehicle, home office, travel, etc., may become deductible. A contractor’s total expenses are normally maximised by utilising the PSI Entity strategy which may make private motor vehicle expenses and living away from home accommodation and…

Tax Planning Strategy 162 | Endorsement Income

3 August 2017

Most forms of income earned by professional sportspeople is personal services income (PSI) and is assessed to the sportsperson individually. This includes salary, competition winnings, prizes, and appearance fees. This income cannot be split with family members or taxed at company rates.  In contrast, all endorsement income is genuine business income generated by the goodwill…

Tax Planning Strategy 169 | Salary Packaging Rental & Share Investment Losses to ‘Beat’ the Income Test Rules

13 July 2017

Investment Loss (TNIL) is an individual’s taxable losses from rental and share investments. The TNIL is added back to an individual’s taxable income to calculate the tax related concessions and obligations for: Medicare levy surcharge. 15% additional tax on concessional contributions (Division 293). Child support payments. $1,000 up-front reduction for discounts on employee shares/options. Senior…

Tax Planning Strategy 163 | Salary Packaging Business Assets to Double Dip

6 July 2017

  This tax strategy allows an employee, who is also separately carrying on a business as a sole trader, to claim depreciation on the cost of an asset in their business that has been fully reimbursed by their employer. This strategy involves ‘double dipping’ as the employees business depreciation claim is unaffected by their employer…

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"You’d be stupid not to try to cut your tax bill and those that don’t are stupid in business"

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