Frequently asked questions

If you lodge yourself, your return is generally due by 31 October. If you're on a registered tax agent's client list before then, you'll usually have longer to lodge. Get in touch before 31 October and we can tell you your due date.

Not until your return is prepared. Every refund depends on your income, the tax already withheld and what you can genuinely claim. What we can promise is that we'll look carefully at the deductions available to you.

Possibly. Before we lodge your return, you need to send your super fund a notice of intent to claim a deduction, and we need the fund's letter acknowledging it. If your return is lodged first, the deduction is generally lost. You can arrange the notice with your fund yourself before your appointment, or we can help you with it for a fee. This is general information, not financial advice.

Claiming your own super contributions →

We can explain how the tax works, check the timing of any super deduction notice, and include an FHSS release correctly in your tax return. We can't advise whether the scheme suits you; for that, talk to a licensed financial adviser.

How the FHSS scheme works →

Bring whatever you have from this list. We'll tell you what's claimable.

• Your agent's annual rental statement (or monthly statements). If you manage it yourself, a record of the rent received.
• Loan statements for the year for every loan on the property. If you refinanced or redrew, tell us what the money was used for: only the part used for the rental is deductible.
• Council rates, water, land tax, body corporate levies and landlord insurance.
• Invoices for repairs, maintenance, pest control, gardening, cleaning and smoke alarm servicing.
• Invoices for any renovations or improvements. These are claimed differently from repairs.
• Your depreciation schedule, if you have one.
• Dates it was rented, or available for rent, and any time you, family or friends used it (or rented it below market rate).
• First year renting it out? Bring the purchase contract, settlement statement, stamp duty, conveyancing fees and loan set-up costs. Some of these are deductible now; the rest matter when you sell.
• Was it your home before? The date you moved out, and a valuation from around then if you have one.
• Own it with someone else? Your ownership share.

A quantity surveyor's schedule lists what you can claim for the building and its fittings each year. It's not compulsory, and it isn't always worth it.

• Good: on newer properties it can add thousands a year to your deductions, for up to 40 years. The surveyor's fee is tax deductible too.
• Good: if you've never had one, you may be able to claim for recent past years by amending those returns.
• Catch: bought an established home after 9 May 2017? You can't claim depreciation on the existing fittings (carpets, blinds, appliances). Only the building itself and new items you buy. That makes schedules on older properties worth much less.
• Catch: houses built before mid-September 1987 usually get no building deduction at all, unless they've been renovated since.
• Catch: the building deductions you claim reduce the property's cost base, so you pay more capital gains tax when you sell. It usually still comes out ahead, but some of the benefit is paid back later.
• Tip: many surveyors will tell you upfront whether a schedule will cover its cost. Ask before you pay.

Quancept Consulting Services: tax depreciation schedules ↗

Not sure? Ask us before you order one. We'll tell you if it's likely to be worth it. For schedules, we refer clients to Quancept.

Short-stay rentals follow the same rules as a normal rental, plus a few extras, especially if you live there or use it yourself. Bring everything on the rental list above, and:

• Your earnings or payout summaries from each platform for the year. Platforms now report your bookings to the ATO, so we check that they match.
• Platform service fees, and any management or co-host fees.
• Cleaning, linen and laundry, and guest supplies such as toiletries, coffee and Wi-Fi.
• Receipts for furniture and appliances you bought for guests.
• A calendar of the year: nights booked, nights available, and nights you, family or friends stayed or it was blocked out.
• Renting out a room in your own home? The rough floor area of the guest room(s) and shared areas, so we can work out the claimable share of your costs.

Worth knowing: holiday homes you also use yourself only get deductions for the times they're genuinely rented or available at market rates. Renting part of your own home can affect your main residence exemption when you sell. And there's no GST on renting out a residential home, even if you're registered for GST.

Queensland land tax is charged each year on the total value of the land you own in Queensland at midnight on 30 June, once it reaches the threshold for your type of owner. Your own home is generally exempt.

• Individuals: from $600,000 of land value.
• Companies and trusts (trustees): from $350,000, at higher rates. That includes family trusts, so the same property can attract land tax in a trust when it wouldn't in your own name.
• Absentees (people who live overseas and aren't Australian citizens or permanent residents): from $350,000, plus a 3% surcharge. Foreign companies and foreign trusts pay the same 3% surcharge.
• It's the land value set by the Valuer-General, not the property's market price, so it's usually much lower than what the property is worth.
• Co-owned land is assessed on each owner's share.
• Only Queensland land counts towards these thresholds. Other states have their own land tax, with different thresholds and rules.
• Land tax on a rental property is a tax deduction.

Queensland land tax rates and estimator (QRO) ↗

Thinking about buying in a trust or company, or in another state? Talk to us first; land tax can change which structure works best.

To work out the capital gains tax, we need the full cost of buying, owning and selling it. Bring whatever you have:

• Contract and settlement statement from when you bought it, and from the sale. The contract date of the sale (not settlement) decides which tax year it falls in.
• Buying costs: stamp duty, conveyancing and legal fees, building and pest inspections.
• Selling costs: agent's commission, advertising, styling and legal fees.
• Invoices for renovations, extensions or other improvements over the years.
• Your depreciation schedule, and past tax returns if we didn't do them, so we can see what was claimed.
• If it was ever your home: the dates you lived there and the dates it was rented.
• If it was never rented or lived in (e.g. vacant land): rates, interest and insurance you paid. These can sometimes be added to the cost.
• If you inherited it: the date of death, and the purchase details or a valuation from around then.

Missing something? Bring what you have and we'll help you find the rest.

We can see most dividends and some sales through the ATO, but not your cost base, so bring:

• Annual tax statements for every ETF and managed fund. These usually arrive July to September, so they're often the last thing you'll be waiting on.
• Dividend statements, including any dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) statements.
• For anything you sold: the sell confirmation (contract note), and the buy confirmation or other proof of what you paid.
• Anything unusual: shares from an employer share scheme, a demerger, a takeover, a share split, or shares you inherited or were given.

Your cost base is basically what you paid for the shares, plus brokerage and other buying costs. Here's where to find it:

• Your broker: buy confirmations, or a transaction history report you can download from CommSec, Stake, Selfwealth and similar.
• Your share registry (e.g. Computershare or MUFG Corporate Markets, formerly Link): holding history and DRP statements, which show the price of each reinvestment.
• Each DRP reinvestment is a separate purchase with its own cost base and its own 12-month clock.
• ETFs and managed funds: your cost base changes each year by the 'AMIT cost base adjustment' on the annual tax statement. Keep every year's statement.
• Inherited shares: generally the deceased's cost base, or the market value on the date of death if they bought them before 20 September 1985.
• Shares you were given: generally the market value on the day you received them.
• Splits, demergers and takeovers: the company or the ATO usually publishes how to split the cost base. Tell us and we'll find it.

Can't find your records? Don't guess. Bring what you have, and we'll work out a reasonable cost base from historical prices and registry records.

If you sell for more than your cost base, the profit is a capital gain and is added to your taxable income for the year. If you held the shares for more than 12 months, only half the gain is taxed. Losses can only be used against capital gains, not your wages, but unused losses carry forward to future years. The tax year is decided by the date you sold, not when the money arrived.

The ATO gets data from Australian exchanges, so it's important to get this right. Bring:

• A full transaction history (CSV download) from every exchange you've used, going back to your very first purchase, including exchanges that have closed or you no longer use.
• Your wallet addresses, for any crypto held off an exchange.
• Records of staking rewards, airdrops, interest or mining income.
• Any report from crypto tax software if you already use one. If not, we can do it in Koinly under our licence.
• Evidence of anything lost, stolen or sent to a scam.

Your cost base is the Australian dollar value of what you gave up to get the coin, plus fees. In practice:

• Bought with dollars: the price you paid plus the exchange fee.
• Swapped from another coin: the market value, in dollars, of the coin you gave up at the time of the swap.
• Staking rewards and airdrops: the dollar value when you received them. That amount is taxed as income, then becomes the cost base.
• Moving coins between your own wallets isn't a sale, but keep a record of it, so the cost base follows the coins.

Your exchange history is the key record, because cost bases go back to your first purchase. We use Koinly to do the matching, then check it.

Yes. We don't work out crypto gains and losses by hand: matching every buy, sell, swap and reward to the right cost base takes hours, which costs you more. We hold Koinly accountant licences, so we can prepare your report under our licence, which is often cheaper than buying your own plan. How it works:

• Book in, and tell us which exchanges and wallets you've used.
• We set you up under our licence. You connect your exchanges with read-only access, or upload their CSV files.
• We check and tidy the data: missing cost bases, transfers between your own wallets, staking and airdrop income, spam tokens.
• The results go into your tax return, with the Koinly report kept as your record.
• Already use Koinly? Share your account with us and we'll review it.
• Keep it safe: only ever give read-only access, and never share your seed phrase or private keys, with us or anyone. We'll never ask for them.

The cost depends mostly on how many transactions you have. Call us for a quote.

Usually, yes. A crypto-to-crypto swap is generally treated as disposing of one asset and acquiring another, so it can trigger a capital gain or loss even though no cash changed hands.

It depends on your profit, your risk and your plans. A company can save tax once profits are higher, but it costs more to run and the money isn't simply yours. Our article covers the pros, cons and catches.

Company or sole trader? The pros and cons →

Trusts suit some families and businesses well, but they have strict rules: a 30 June deadline every year, losses that stay in the trust, land tax and more. Read the article before you set one up.

All about trusts →

Usually yes, once you're registered for GST, have employees, or have more than a handful of transactions a month. Below that, a simpler option is often fine.

• Just starting out, no GST: a spreadsheet, or the free ATO app (myDeductions records sole trader income and expenses). Keep receipts and a separate bank account for the business.
• Registered for GST or busier: bookkeeping software. It pulls in your bank transactions automatically, does the GST for your BAS, and we can log in and see your books directly, which usually means a smaller bill from us.
• Employees: you'll need software that does Single Touch Payroll. Most bookkeeping software includes it, sometimes as a paid add-on.
• Cost: a monthly subscription, usually tax deductible. Entry-level plans are cheaper but limit transactions or features. Check the provider's site for current prices.

Xero ↗MYOB ↗QuickBooks ↗

Not sure which suits you? Ask us. We use all three and can help you set up.

Wrong GST codes, ATO payments recorded as expenses, mixing up cash and accrual, software set up wrongly, and books not updated after year-end are the ones we fix most often. Our two articles cover them all, with the habits that prevent them.

Everyday bookkeeping mistakes →Software set-up and year-end mistakes →