Australian tax thread 2013

Kiith

I've only been working since April, so i might wait. Is there any penalty to not doing your tax return for a few weeks?

Esse85

I was unable to fill out the 2012 tax return due to not being able to verify my identity, first time trying to use e-tax.

I tried again for 2013 and same issue.

Went onto the website and eventually found the the link for the paper return. Turns out there's no option to download it so I've had to request it to be posted to me in Ireland.

Absolute joke.

Legend100

Esse85 wrote: »

I was unable to fill out the 2012 tax return due to not being able to verify my identity, first time trying to use e-tax.

I tried again for 2013 and same issue.

Went onto the website and eventually found the the link for the paper return. Turns out there's no option to download it so I've had to request it to be posted to me in Ireland.

Absolute joke.

When you did your 2012 return, they would have sent you an assessment in the post of your liability/refund (usually about two or three days after you get your refund)

Did you keep this? (Advice to everyone by the way is to make sure to hang onto this for 2013!!!)

If you have it, there is a reference number on it that will enable to you to be immediately verified for 2013

hussey

Kiith wrote: »

I've only been working since April, so i might wait. Is there any penalty to not doing your tax return for a few weeks?

You have until Oct 31 2013

bossdon

Is there anyway to check if you ticked resident for tax purposes = Y?

niva*sis

hi all,

if you forgot to claim the medicare levy exemption last year can you claim it with your tax this year if you have a cert from last year and this year? (got both of mine in the post on friday) or is the october 31st cut off for this also?

aswell an accountant told me if you have private health insurance that you can claim the medicare levy surcharge!

Legend100

Yes you can for last year but you will have to do an amended return (not sure if you can do amendments on e-tax, may have to do a paper return)

if you are exempt from the medicare levy, you are exempt from the medicare levy surcharge (i.e you don't need health insurance not to pay it)

Don't know what your accountant means by claiming the medicare levy surcharge - it is a tax, not a deduction??

niva*sis

Legend100 wrote: »

Yes you can for last year but you will have to do an amended return (not sure if you can do amendments on e-tax, may have to do a paper return)

if you are exempt from the medicare levy, you are exempt from the medicare levy surcharge (i.e you don't need health insurance not to pay it)

Don't know what your accountant means by claiming the medicare levy surcharge - it is a tax, not a deduction??

well thats good if its all the same tax in relation to medicare and now i dont have to wait for my company to send me my insurance details.
i dunno how this tax business works! great so i can send me stuff to the accountant today. i have my poor accountant bombarded with questions!!!

cheers folks

Legend100

Oh just be careful on that point in relation to the details from your health fund.

apparently the ATO are cracking down on people not making disclosures in their returns even if it doesn't affect their liability (that's what the accounting firms are telling us at work) so maybe best to have your insurance details to make full disclosure - even though you are already exempt from the medicare levy surcharge

niva*sis

ya thanks legend100
i will have my insurance details if they need it, i have sent everything to the accountant now including my medicare exemption certs so ive told her if she needs it just let me know..

oh i hope i get a lot of $$$$$

purcela

This is my first year submitting a tax return here, so just wondering how I will know when my ID is verified on e-tax? Do I get a notification or anything? I'm holding off on submitting it until I know I'm verified by the system.

mandrake04

niva*sis wrote: »

hi all,

if you forgot to claim the medicare levy exemption last year can you claim it with your tax this year if you have a cert from last year and this year? (got both of mine in the post on friday) or is the october 31st cut off for this also?

aswell an accountant told me if you have private health insurance that you can claim the medicare levy surcharge!

as Legend100 says the MLS is not tax deductible, the surcharge is a levy where if you don't have Private Hosp cover and you earn over for example $84,000 you pay an extra 1% of tax.

That is they will hit you for a tax bill of at least $840.

If you are exempt from Medicare then the MLS wont apply.

Also I have seen other post recently where someone was under the impression that they were going get all the money they paid for Private Health insurance back, you don't you only get the Government Private Health rebate which is printed on your Private Health Insurance statement as a $$ figure this was usually 30%... ie if your insurance was $1000 per year the government would give you a rebate of $300 when you present you statement at tax time. You don't get the other $600 back.

You can only get the rebate if you are eligible for it, usually being registered for medicare.

Although on the BUPA website on their Overseas visitors cover

http://www.bupa.com.au/health-insurance/cover/overseas-visitors/about/faqs

Why does my accountant ask me to get a Tax Statement?

There may be a number of reasons for this, for example:

So you can claim the Australian Government Rebate on private health insurance
You are eligible for the Australian Government Rebate if you have a Reciprocal Medicare card and have Extras cover or Reciprocal Health Cover with us.

To exempt you from the Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS)
You are liable for the MLS if you: are from a country that has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with Australia, have a Reciprocal Medicare card, and are working in Australia and earning over the MLS threshold amount.

Although its unclear if that is a Reciprocal Medicare card is the medicare card that residents from UK get which would be different from Reciprocal for ROI.

see here

Enrolling in Medicare
If you know you need treatment, you can enrol for Medicare at a DHS Service Centre. If you receive treatment before you enrol, Medicare benefits will be back-paid for eligible visitors.

To enrol in Medicare you need:

your passport and a valid visa
to provide (in some cases) identification showing you are enrolled in your country’s national health scheme.
If your Medicare application is approved, you will receive an Australian reciprocal health care card in the mail.

Legend100

No you wont be given a notice of when you are verified

Basically keep going into e-tax and it will ask you for your shared secret something or other (sorry trying to go from memory here). One of these will be a payg summary that your company has returned. When they have submitted their own company return, all your details will be on file with the ATO and then you will be able to match the ABN of your employer together with your salary details. This will then verify who you are

Just note that you could be a few weeks yet waiting for your details to be on their system - all depends on how quickly your employer files their return. They have until 14th of August to file

Mellor

Batgurl wrote: »

Although its unclear if that is a Reciprocal Medicare card is the medicare card that residents from UK get which would be different from Reciprocal for ROI.

No medicare card under the ROI agreement so not liable for the MLS, even if earning over the threshold.

massdebater

Does anyone know if the ATO checks all your bank accounts to see if you have any income from interest received on savings accounts? I have my savings split over a few different accounts. My accountant never asked for it so I never thought of it at the time. Do all your accounts get checked or is that only if you get audited?

Mellor

The ATO don't access to your bank accounts to check them, but your bank has your tax file number and it declares any interest earnings to the ATO.
If you don't give the bank your TFN they start taking 30% cut of your interest on savings

massdebater

Mellor wrote: »

The ATO don't access to your bank accounts to check them, but your bank has your tax file number and it declares any interest earnings to the ATO.
If you don't give the bank your TFN they start taking 30% cut of your interest on savings

Ok, thanks. I've double checked there and my bank (ubank) has my TFN but I've never paid any tax on it. They've even issued with my end of tax year summary with my total interest earned that shows I have paid zero witholding tax. I'm not sure why that's happening but I'm not going to say anything unless I'm asked.

Legend100

massdebater wrote: »

Ok, thanks. I've double checked there and my bank (ubank) has my TFN but I've never paid any tax on it. They've even issued with my end of tax year summary with my total interest earned that shows I have paid zero witholding tax. I'm not sure why that's happening but I'm not going to say anything unless I'm asked.

You have it in reverse

The bank will withhold tax if they don't have your TFN (it was actually brought in for non-residents having offshore accounts in Australia). When you give the bank your TFN, then they will pay your interest gross and you pay the tax in your own tax return

massdebater

Legend100 wrote: »

You have it in reverse

The bank will withhold tax if they don't have your TFN (it was actually brought in for non-residents having offshore accounts in Australia). When you give the bank your TFN, then they will pay your interest gross and you pay the tax in your own tax return

Ah yes, I understand now. So I should have declared the interest as income on my tax return.

Actually, I rang my accountant there and he says I already sent him my interest statement from ubank. I need a drink. Thanks for the help.

huggy15

i am trying to claim my tax back using the e-tax programme. I have made 41000 gross and paid 8000 tax. I have heard from a good few people that on your first tax return you should be able to get the majority of the tax you paid back. is this true ? the tax return estimate I got was 3600, I thought that sounded a bit low or is that in around the right ball park?

jackbhoy

huggy15 wrote: »

i am trying to claim my tax back using the e-tax programme. I have made 41000 gross and paid 8000 tax. I have heard from a good few people that on your first tax return you should be able to get the majority of the tax you paid back. is this true ? the tax return estimate I got was 3600, I thought that sounded a bit low or is that in around the right ball park?

Nope, that's sounds about right. Your tax liability should be around $4.5k +medicare levy.

Why would you get tax back because it's your first return? People probably got all/most of tax back in their first year because they only worked a few months and didn't make very much.

The rates below are from ATO (for resident for tax purposes) and apply to everyone, no pub talk exceptions for first timers....

$0 – $18,200 = Nil
$18,201 – $37,000 = 19%
$37,001 – $80,000 = $3,572 plus 32.5% for everything over $37,000

aido79

huggy15 wrote: »

i am trying to claim my tax back using the e-tax programme. I have made 41000 gross and paid 8000 tax. I have heard from a good few people that on your first tax return you should be able to get the majority of the tax you paid back. is this true ? the tax return estimate I got was 3600, I thought that sounded a bit low or is that in around the right ball park?

Sounds about right. This question has been asked a number of times before. It doesn't matter what visa you are on.

huggy15

jackbhoy wrote: »

Nope, that's sounds about right. Your tax liability should be around $4.5k +medicare levy.

Why would you get tax back because it's your first return? People probably got all/most of tax back in their first year because they only worked a few months and didn't make very much.

The rates below are from ATO (for resident for tax purposes) and apply to everyone, no pub talk exceptions for first timers....

$0 – $18,200 = Nil
$18,201 – $37,000 = 19%
$37,001 – $80,000 = $3,572 plus 32.5% for everything over $37,000

that's just what I've heard from other people who had completed a tax return over here for the first time, but that is probably the case they didnt pay as much as I have paid.
I'm going to try going to a tax accountant and see what figure they come up with, I might have missed something on the e-tax.

Esse85

Legend100 wrote: »

When you did your 2012 return, they would have sent you an assessment in the post of your liability/refund (usually about two or three days after you get your refund)

Did you keep this? (Advice to everyone by the way is to make sure to hang onto this for 2013!!!)

If you have it, there is a reference number on it that will enable to you to be immediately verified for 2013

I never got my 2012 refund.

lavelle72

mandrake04 wrote: »

Although on the BUPA website on their Overseas visitors cover

http://www.bupa.com.au/health-insurance/cover/overseas-visitors/about/faqs

I have the basic Overseas Visitor Cover with BUPA (I think it's called Essential Visitors Cover). They state on their website that they do not issue tax statements for this type of cover. As I was doing my tax return, I was wondering what to put for this question (in the Medicare section). I specified that I'm exempt from Medicare (I'm from ROI on a 457) and thus not liable for the MLS.

I phoned BUPA to ask why I don't get a tax statement, and they said they're not issued for this cover as it's not an "appropriate" level (with extras). I also phoned the ATO to ask what to do with this section in eTax, stating that BUPA told me I would not be getting a tax statement. They advised me to answer 'no' to the question "did you have private health insurance at any point during the 2012/2013 tax year?" - I did that and have submitted my return already.

huggy15

on my e tax refund it says Medicare levy of roughly $800, I didn't know working holiday makers had to pay this? or am I mistaken?

massdebater

huggy15 wrote: »

on my e tax refund it says Medicare levy of roughly $800, I didn't know working holiday makers had to pay this? or am I mistaken?

Afaik everyone pays it and it's up to people who aren't entitled to Medicare to claim it back.

mandrake04

lavelle72 wrote: »

I have the basic Overseas Visitor Cover with BUPA (I think it's called Essential Visitors Cover). They state on their website that they do not issue tax statements for this type of cover. As I was doing my tax return, I was wondering what to put for this question (in the Medicare section). I specified that I'm exempt from Medicare (I'm from ROI on a 457) and thus not liable for the MLS.

I phoned BUPA to ask why I don't get a tax statement, and they said they're not issued for this cover as it's not an "appropriate" level (with extras). I also phoned the ATO to ask what to do with this section in eTax, stating that BUPA told me I would not be getting a tax statement. They advised me to answer 'no' to the question "did you have private health insurance at any point during the 2012/2013 tax year?" - I did that and have submitted my return already.

Firstly understand the government encourages people to take out Private Hosp cover to reduce the burden on Medicare (essentially free).

It uses a Carrot and Stick system.

The stick is those people who earn over a certain threshold should be able to afford to pay a certain part of their healthcare, so they are hit with an extra 1%---1.25% on top of the mandatory Medicare Tax.

If you are medicare Exempt then the MLS wont apply, you are not really considered a medicare consumer so you shouldn't have to pay the Levy.


The Carrot is those who do take Private Hosp cover and depending on your age and how much you earn you are entitled to Government Private Health rebate. Like I explained above if your yearly Premiums are $1000 and you get a 30% rebate the government pays you back $300 when you present a Tax statement. But according to the BUPA web site

Why does my accountant ask me to get a Tax Statement?

There may be a number of reasons for this, for example:

So you can claim the Australian Government Rebate on private health insurance
You are eligible for the Australian Government Rebate if you have a Reciprocal Medicare card and have Extras cover or Reciprocal Health Cover with us.

To exempt you from the Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS)

You are liable for the MLS if you: are from a country that has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with Australia, have a Reciprocal Medicare card, and are working in Australia and earning over the MLS threshold amount.

Its seems that if you don't have a Medicare card you don't get the Government rebate, on the other hand you are not liable for MLS.

lavelle72

Think that all makes sense, cheers.

Your last point below seems to corroborate with what I was told in terms of answering 'no' to the private health question within the etax Medicare section. Even though in theory I do actually have a basic level of private health cover, I don't need to answer 'yes' as I'm not trying to claim any rebate on it as I'm not entitled to...

mandrake04 wrote: »

Its seems that if you don't have a Medicare card you don't get the Government rebate, on the other hand you are not liable for MLS.

john.co

This is my first time submitting a tax return and have two questions to start!
[I've looked through last year's post and read the replies but haven't found a specific response so here goes...]

Does anyone click "Yes" when asked if they have a spouse or partner in the last year? My gf is considered my de-facto partner for our PR visa so just wondering what the story is with that question. She'll be doing her own tax return as well so unsure about what affect this question has?

We were both here and working on a WHV for ~6 months before I got my Permanent Residency Visa granted. I understand that we're considered residents for tax purposes but how will the change in Visa status affect the Medicare Levy / Surcharge? We only became eligible for Medicare back in April so are we exempt for part of the year or are we liable for the whole charge? (neither of us have private health insurance...yet and neither of us earned over ~80k so won't break into the surcharge (?) category)

Thanks in advance for any responses and if anyone can recommend a capable tax advisor in Melbourne let me know (in case this all gets too much!).

Mellor

When filling out the medicare exemption, there are boxes for part year and full year. You'll be exempt for the days you weren't eligible for medicare

Legend100

john.co wrote: »

This is my first time submitting a tax return and have two questions to start!
[I've looked through last year's post and read the replies but haven't found a specific response so here goes...]

Does anyone click "Yes" when asked if they have a spouse or partner in the last year? My gf is considered my de-facto partner for our PR visa so just wondering what the story is with that question. She'll be doing her own tax return as well so unsure about what affect this question has?

We were both here and working on a WHV for ~6 months before I got my Permanent Residency Visa granted. I understand that we're considered residents for tax purposes but how will the change in Visa status affect the Medicare Levy / Surcharge? We only became eligible for Medicare back in April so are we exempt for part of the year or are we liable for the whole charge? (neither of us have private health insurance...yet and neither of us earned over ~80k so won't break into the surcharge (?) category)

Thanks in advance for any responses and if anyone can recommend a capable tax advisor in Melbourne let me know (in case this all gets too much!).

You will be liable for medicare from when you got PR - you can manually enter the number of days you are exempt

Yup, if you didnt have sufficient income, you don't pay the medicare levy surcharge even if you didnt have adequate heath cover.

I do usually fill in my GF's details on my return (we are defacto on a 457). It actually doesn't make much difference to me but for someone on PR it will. You need to combine your incomes together to work out your liability to MLS and also for benefits purposes but I assume this doesn't apply to you. There are a number of other reasons it is asked (such as paying a HECS debt for your spouse out of your refund) but "most" won't apply - well it will all depend on your personal circumstances.

If you are completely stuck - let me know!

john.co

Thank for the quick replies - I'll try and tackle it again tonight!

Little Sunshine

Hi
I'm a new bee to this tax return - arrived in January 2013 on PR visa and started work at end of Feb. What do I do? log on to etax and complete the form - is that correct?
I don't have private health cover - do I need to get it? - a person in work said I will get charged a lot of tax cause I don't have private health cover. He is on a 457 - so think that makes a difference.

Anyone have experience of this

Thanks

Little Sunshine

Ok so logged on to this site
http://www.ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/Comprehensive-tax-calculator/
and inputted the following
- part resident for 6 months (as I arrived in January)
- gross wages (started work at end of Feb - statement from employer) and
- total tax withheld

It says I am due a REFUND of nearly $4,000 - could that be right?
has anyone else used this or do I need to put in more info - left the medicare section black - would that make a difference?

Any ideas anyone

Little Sunshine

Right I knew it was too good to be true - I went back and put in details for the medicare levy - Now I OWE approx $2,000

hussey

Little Sunshine wrote: »

Right I knew it was too good to be true - I went back and put in details for the medicare levy - Now I OWE approx $2,000

It could be worth seeing a tax accountant (not a % service but fixed price accountant - around $100) and he can guide you through.

Medicare should be about 1% of your salary and 1.5% extra if you are above a certain figure (I think 100k)

It's shouldn't make a 6k difference (-4k - +2k)

Legend100

In theory, you should never OWE money at the end of the tax year if you only had employment income as your employer should be taxing you correctly on a payment basis (employers don't use a cumulative system here like they do at home)

if you want to pm me your figures, il have a look at it for you (i'm a tax accountant in case you're worried I'm one of the lads down the pub who heard from their cousins mothers neighbour that everyone gets massive refunds every year )

mandrake04

Little Sunshine wrote: »

Hi
I'm a new bee to this tax return - arrived in January 2013 on PR visa and started work at end of Feb. What do I do? log on to etax and complete the form - is that correct?

eTax is a program you download to your PC and you answer questions and enter values, if you are a bit clueless since its your first year you can get a tax agent to do it for you for about $120. You can claim this back next year.

Little Sunshine wrote: »

I don't have private health cover - do I need to get it? - a person in work said I will get charged a lot of tax cause I don't have private health cover. He is on a 457 - so think that makes a difference.

Anyone have experience of this

Thanks

If you are eligible for medicare and earn less than $84K in the last year and don't don't have medical insurance it wont matter.

If you don't have medical insurance and are single and earn you will pay % of your income.

$84,001 – $97,000 1%
$97,001 – $130,000 1.25%
$130,001 and over 1.5%

Example if your taxable income was $127,500 per year you would be up for $1593.75 in MLS, paying an insurance Premium of $1139 with 30% government rebate would save you $796.45

It all depends if you are eligible for medicare or not, being a PR or even on a 457 from the UK definitely makes you eligible. Being on a 457 from ROI you are technically exempt from medicare so wouldn't pay MLS.

If you are a PR since Jan and only being working since Feb as long as your income in the last 5 months is below $84K you should be ok.

also there is a difference between

Medicare Levy
Medicare Levy Surcharge <---- this is the one that having Health cover avoids.

niva*sis

hi guys,
when i use just a general online return calculator to get an estimate of my tax back it says that i paid 894 in medicare.
Being from the ROI am i entitled to all of this back or just a fraction?
I sent my stuff to an accountant yesterday and she is saying my total tax back is 730 (and that includes my accountant fee from last year
($145) and i wanted to claim for two years medicare as i never claimed it last year.

If anyone can shed light on this i would be grateful.

Thanks

Mellor

niva*sis wrote: »

hi guys,
when i use just a general online return calculator to get an estimate of my tax back it says that i paid 894 in medicare.
Being from the ROI am i entitled to all of this back or just a fraction?
I sent my stuff to an accountant yesterday and she is saying my total tax back is 730 (and that includes my accountant fee from last year
($145) and i wanted to claim for two years medicare as i never claimed it last year.

If anyone can shed light on this i would be grateful.

Thanks

You don't pay tax specifically to medicare. You just pay tax every week and and the end of the total it up. Whether or not you are eligible for medicare affects the total you should have paid.

When your account did your tax, did they include a medicare exemption?

niva*sis

yep i understand that the medicare is a percentage of the total tax that i put.
i went on the paycalculator website and it shows my medicare that i paid was over 800 for the year. (it had a breakdown of the taxes)

i have asked my accountant if she included my medicare exemption because i sent her two certs one for this year and one for 3 months last year which im not sure if i can claim for not.

At this stage she could get the road very soon.

Thanks.

dave3004

Hi Guys

Quick question. I paid 11k in cash for medical bills in Oz this last tax year.

I didn't have any private health cover.

Can I claim any of that back or is it not claimable?

Thanks

Dave

jackbhoy

dave3004 wrote: »

Hi Guys

Quick question. I paid 11k in cash for medical bills in Oz this last tax year.

I didn't have any private health cover.

Can I claim any of that back or is it not claimable?

Thanks

Dave

Should be able to get some rebate on it: http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/32036.htm

purcela

On the tax estimate screen where it shows a summary of everything should it separately show any Medicare refund due? I have filled in that I was Medicare exempt for the year. The only fields that have amounts opposite them for me are tax on taxable income, tax withheld and tax offsets used.

Thanks.

ozpaddy2

Arrived over on 457 start of March '13 with wife tow and started working straight away.

Really helpful thread. Thanks to all contributing!

-Should I be claiming as "part year resident" for four months or "resident for full year" because I didn't make the full six months here before the end of the tax year?

-Does anybody know about the dependent spouse benefit?

-For anybody applying for Medicare exemption cert I can confirm you just need a copy of you photo page and the page that shows the Australian entry stamp (not the whole thing as I read on other sites). They can be certified as true copies by medicare providers so ask one of the Irish doctors over here instead of a paying a notary public.

Poz

cikearney

For Medicare cert you need a certified copy of your picture and details and every stamped page of your passport

ozpaddy2

cikearney wrote: »

For Medicare cert you need a certified copy of your picture and details and every stamped page of your passport

I saw that on the site but when I rang the Medicare exemption office and specifically asked did I need to photocopy the whole thing? They told me to copy the photo page and the page with OZ stamp only. I sent those in along with a print out of my 457 and got my cert.

I was dealing directly with one person in the office (she had to check with her boss about my exemption as I worked in the UK before Oz) so maybe it was different for me.

Slidey

They sent mine back last year for some daft reason, i never bothered to re-submit it. This year I photocopied the entire passport and sent the print out from the visa grant too.

cikearney

I just gave it into the cop shop and she copied and stamped it as instructed. The form said every used/ stamped page so that's what she did. I didn't mind because it was free, but when I tried to get it done in the post office it was gonna cost $3.50 per copy and was gonna copy and stamp every used page also.