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16th Dec, 2025
If you’re planning an overseas holiday, especially if you currently receive Centrelink or other government payments, a little prep will help you enjoy your trip without payment surprises or tax headaches.
Different government payments have their own rules about whether, and for how long, they’re paid while you’re outside Australia. Short trips for most families are usually fine, but longer absences can reduce, pause or stop certain payments. You must also keep meeting the usual eligibility tests (residency, income and assets) while you’re away.
For instance:
Tell Services Australia about your travel plans. Use myGov, the app, the relevant phone line or a service centre visit to share your dates, destination and reasons for travel.
Australia’s border movement data is shared with Services Australia, so unreported travel changes can trigger a review or overpayment.
When you get home, check that any paused payments restart and your rates look right.
The tax side is simpler. A short holiday doesn’t usually change your Australian tax residency, so nothing special happens to your tax just because you travelled. Centrelink payments are taxed the same way they are at home, and you’ll lodge your next tax return as usual.
There’s no extra “travel tax”, and if a payment pauses while you’re overseas, you’ll just have less taxable income for that period.
Longer absences are different: if you’re going to be overseas for many months or moving, talk to us about residency, reporting arrangements and student loan obligations.
16th Dec, 2025
Do you own a holiday home that you sometimes rent out? The ATO has just released draft guidance that could change how you claim your holiday home rental income and expenses. The updates specifically target situations where properties are used mainly for personal holidays but owners still claim substantial tax deductions.
The tax law contains an “integrity rule” that stops you from deducting expenses for a property that’s essentially for your personal use. The new draft guidance clarifies how to work out if your property’s considered a holiday home under this rule, and how much you can legitimately claim.
The draft guidance also explains how you should declare rental income and claim deductions for rental properties, including holiday homes, addresses when a property is a “holiday home” for tax purposes and considers common scenarios like renting to family or friends at reduced rates.It outlines what the ATO considers fair and reasonable methods to split expenses between income-producing use and private use; for example, if your holiday home’s rented out half the year and you use it for the other half, you can claim roughly 50% of general costs like interest, utilities and insurance as deductions.
Finally, the guidance introduces a traffic-light system of risk zones. “Amber” covers medium-risk scenarios where you rent the property but also use it personally for a significant part of the year. “Red” covers high-risk arrangements where the property’s mostly used by you or your family, with infrequent or non-commercial rentals. If you’re in the red, the ATO will suspect the property’s mainly a lifestyle asset rather than a genuine income-producing investment, and will be more likely to investigate or challenge your claims.
While these rules are drafts right now, the ATO plans to apply them retrospectively once they’re finalised, with a transitional compliance approach for arrangements in place before 12 November 2025.
Take an honest look at your holiday home usage and review your past claims. Improve your record-keeping by maintaining a log of rental periods, vacant periods and personal use dates. We can help assess how the rules might affect your specific circumstances and ensure you’re maximising your legitimate deductions while staying compliant with the ATO’s expectations.
16th Dec, 2025
The Australian Government will begin paying superannuation contributions from 1 July 2026 for people who receive government-funded paid parental leave from 1 July 2025. This aims to improve retirement outcomes for parents, particularly women, who often experience reduced superannuation growth when they take time out of the workforce for parenting.
Paid parental leave super applies for parents of children born or adopted on or after 1 July 2025. The government contributes superannuation to the employee’s nominated fund at the superannuation guarantee rate of 12% (plus an interest component).
These super contributions aren’t paid at the same time as the paid parental leave income. The ATO will pay them after the end of the financial year when the parent received paid parental leave income. The first contributions are expected from July 2026, covering paid parental leave received during 2025–2026.
The contributions are taxed within the fund at 15% and count towards the individual’s concessional
contributions cap, in the same way as employer superannuation guarantee contributions.
Employers aren’t required to fund or process these super contributions, but they may still affect financial and workforce planning.
Government-funded paid parental leave super doesn’t appear in your payroll costs, but some employers may choose to pay super on employer-funded parental leave or expand existing entitlements to stay competitive. These decisions can influence remuneration strategy and budgets for 2026–2027.
Paid parental leave benefits – including how employers top up or complement the government scheme – are increasingly visible to job seekers and staff. As you review year-end HR reports, check whether your parental leave offering remains competitive and clearly communicated.
Employees who’ve taken or planned paid parental leave during 2025–2026 may ask whether they’ll receive super, when it will be paid and how it interacts with their existing super and caps. Clear internal guidance helps managers and HR answer questions confidently and plan for staffing and backfill arrangements.
There’s potential for confusion between employer- funded super (currently paid at least quarterly and not compulsory on employer-funded parental leave) and government-funded paid parental leave super paid annually by the ATO. Ensuring your policies and communications clearly distinguish between these two streams can help reduce misunderstandings.
01st Oct, 2025
If you’ve ever felt unsure about doing your tax online – or you’re helping someone who is – there are safe, simple ways to learn how it all works. The ATO offers practical tools to help you explore myTax and ATO online services, understand what information’s needed, and access free support if you’re eligible.
The ATO Online Services Simulator is an online training ground. It lets you explore myTax and other ATO online services without any risk or commitment. You can’t accidentally submit a real tax return or make actual payments – it’s purely for learning.
The simulator features eight different scenarios, each representing common Australian tax situations. You practise by acting as the “client” user and clicking through the same style of screens you’d see in real tax records in your MyGov account – entering details, reviewing typical pre-fill information and stepping through lodgment-style workflows.
Because the simulator uses mock data, you can try things out without affecting any real records. If you’re demonstrating for someone else – such as a student, a relative or a person you care for – taking them through the simulator first helps make the real system feel familiar.To try the simulator, visit www.ato.gov.au and search for “Online Services Simulator” using the search bar at the top of the page.
If you earn $70,000 or less and have straightforward tax affairs, the Tax Help program offers free assistance from July to October each year. Accredited volunteers can help you lodge your tax return online, create a myGov account, lodge amendments or determine if you need to lodge a return at all.
You can access Tax Help support online, by phone, or in person at centres across Australia. The Tax Help volunteers understand that many people feel uncertain about digital tax processes and are specifically trained to provide patient, supportive guidance.
If your income exceeds $70,000 or you have more complex tax affairs – such as running a business, owning rental properties, or dealing with capital gains tax – the National Tax Clinic program might be suitable. This government-funded initiative operates through universities across Australia, where tax students provide free advice under the supervision of qualified professionals.
01st Oct, 2025
If your business sells or buys vouchers, it’s essential to understand how to account for and report GST correctly.
A voucher is a document or an electronic record that represents a right to receive goods or services. This includes physical gift cards, digital vouchers and even prepaid phone cards. When your business sells a voucher, you’re essentially providing the recipient with a promise to supply goods or services in the future, and it’s at this future point that the GST implications come into play.
The ATO recognises two distinct types of vouchers.
Face value vouchers can be redeemed for a reasonable choice of goods and services – for example, a $50 supermarket gift card that works across all store locations. The voucher sale isn’t considered a GST taxable supply, so you don’t charge GST at the point when you sell the voucher. Instead, you account for GST when the voucher’s redeemed and the goods or services are supplied. For instance, if you sell that $50 gift card, you don’t charge GST on the gift card sale, but when the gift card’s redeemed to purchase goods worth $50, you charge GST on the supply of those goods.
There’s one exception: if you sell a face value voucher for more than its face value, you must account for GST on the excess amount immediately.
Non-face value vouchers are restricted to specific goods or services – like a voucher specifically for a spa treatment, purchased for $100. With these, you account for GST (eg on the $100 price) at the time of sale, but only if the voucher is redeemable for taxable supplies.
If the voucher is only redeemable for GST-free or input-taxed supplies, there’s no GST to account for.
Here’s something business owners often overlook: if you’ve sold face value vouchers that expire or remain unredeemed, and you write back the unused amount to your current income for accounting purposes, you need to make an “increasing adjustment” on your Business Activity Statement (BAS). This adjustment is 1/11th of the unredeemed balance.
If your business buys vouchers, you may be able to claim a GST credit – but timing matters. For face value vouchers, you claim the credit when you redeem the voucher, not when you buy it. For non-face value vouchers, you claim the credit when you purchase the voucher. Remember, you can only claim credits for GST-inclusive purchases used in your business.
To account for GST on vouchers you sell, you need to keep accurate records including dates of sale, redemption and/or expiration, and the amounts of GST payable. Importantly, specific rules and exceptions apply to certain types of vouchers. For example, if you sell vouchers that can be redeemed for a combination of goods and services, you need to apportion the GST accordingly. You may also need to issue a tax invoice to the customer when a voucher’s redeemed, and keep a copy of this invoice for your records. And finally, of course, you need to report GST on vouchers in your BAS in accordance with ATO guidelines.
01st Oct, 2025
If you’re nearing retirement and looking for ways to boost your superannuation savings, downsizer super contributions might be the perfect solution for you.
These allow eligible Australians aged 55 and over to contribute proceeds from selling their home into their superannuation fund.
In the 2024–2025 financial year alone, 15,800 individuals took advantage of this strategy, contributing a total of $4.165 billion to their superannuation funds.
A downsizer contribution allows an eligible individual to contribute an amount equal to all or part of the sale proceeds (up to $300,000 each) from the sale of their home into their superannuation fund. The contribution must not exceed the sale proceeds of the home.
The great advantage is that downsizer contributions aren’t restricted by any other contribution caps or your total superannuation balance; there are no work tests; and there’s no upper age limit. It’s one of the rare ways you can contribute large amounts to your super even after the age of 75.
Downsizer contributions can also be used alongside other strategies. For example, someone under age 75 can potentially combine the following three strategies to contribute up to $690,000 to super in a single year, if eligible and if timed correctly:
To make a downsizer contribution, you must:
Failure to submit the Downsizer contribution into super form on time may result in your fund rejecting the contribution or treating it as a standard non- concessional contribution, which could have adverse tax implications.
The 90-day deadline from the date of settlement is also strict. If you need more time (eg due to delays in purchasing a new home), you must apply to the ATO for an extension. Extensions are granted only in limited circumstances, such as settlement delays due to council approvals.