Although it comes around every year, tax time is an annual period of stress for many that seems to creep up unexpectedly. With less than a month to go before the end of the financial year it's definitely time to start thinking about your tax return. The key to a stress free tax return is to plan early, so start now and make life easy for yourself. Although you have from July 1st to October 31st to file a tax return I'm going to outline why you should get underway as soon as possible, and the tools readily available at your fingertips that can help!
Why Should I Start Thinking about my Tax Return early?
The most obvious reason to start thinking about your tax return early is that the sooner you file, the sooner you'll receive your refund, if you're due one. While there is a four month period during which time you can file your tax return, it seems silly to leave your money with the taxman. If you do make use of a high interest savings account, but wait till the 11th hour to file your tax return, you'd be missing out on a few months worth of interest that that money could have earned.
It's also really important to file your tax return on time to avoid being stung by a 'failure to lodge' on time penalty (FTL). This is an administrative penalty that may be applied by the ATO if you're required to lodge a return, statement, notice or other document by a specific date but you fail to do so.
How can a Personal Finance Tool Help?
A personal finance tool can really help you out come tax time - it can show you your transaction history going back months from as many different bank accounts as you like, all in one concise place. Thankfully this means that you can forget about that shoebox stuffed full of receipts growing in the cupboard or having to sift through a pile of bank statements! Rather, using Boomeringo's easy one click system you can mark specific transactions as taxable as you go. That way, come July 1st your taxable transactions can be exported into a CSV or PDF file and downloaded instantly.
Email Us
From ANZ MoneyManager
