Tax Time Tips 2025

Are you ready for this year’s personal tax return? Here are our 2025 Tax Time Tips!

Your Tax Time Tips for your 2025 Tax Return

When can I lodge my tax return? Is it too early?

Your employer has until 14 July to finalise their STP reporting which means if you book in your tax return before they have done this your Tax Agent may not have access to your final payroll information. As in previous years, the ATO have suggested you should not file your tax return until 31 July to ensure all your information has been collected from all the various agencies and early lodgement may result in a tax return adjustment and possible debt collection action.

Payment Summaries / Income Statements

Income Statements are available on MyGov: It’s unlikely you will receive a payment summary from your employer this year as all employers now should be on STP. Download an income statement via your MyGov account if you need it however your accountant can obtain a prefill report for your tax return.

Motor vehicle deduction claims

Tax returns with the per kilometre method to claim motor vehicle costs the rate has increased from 85 to 88 cents per kilometre for FY2024-25. Be sure to maintain adequate evidence to substantiate your claim including:

A record of how you worked out your business kilometres per car, per income year.
Copies of the purchase or lease documents for your car.
Copies of the car registration certificate or papers.
Details of the business travel you undertook during the income year, for example, you should advise the purpose of the travel undertaken, frequency of any work-related travel, number of kilometres travelled for work-related purposes.
If your claim relates to the transport of bulky tools and equipment provide a list of all work items carried, the weight and size. If work items are carried in a bag provide the dimensions and weight of the bag.
Details of the types of secure storage available.
Any other evidence confirming that the travel claimed was undertaken in your car in the course of carrying out your employment duties this could include: a copy of your job description, employment contract. the relevant award or workplace or enterprise bargaining agreement.

Want to supercharge your motor vehicle deduction claim? We can help you prepare a motor vehicle claim using the direct cost method to maximise your deductions however you will need to maintain both purchasing information for your vehicle, documentation for all operating costs associated with the vehicle and an appropriately kept logbook for 12-weeks which will be valid for up to 5-years, so long as your use pattern has not changed by 11% or more.

Work from home deduction claims

You can use either the fixed rate method of 70 cents per hour for FY2024-25 or the actual cost method in this year’s tax return. For the fixed rate method, be aware you can only claim for additional running expenses you incur for:

Home and mobile internet or data expenses.
Mobile and home phone usage expenses.
Electricity and gas (energy expenses) for heating, cooling and lighting.
Stationery and computer consumables, such as printer ink and paper.

The rate per work hour (70c) includes the total deductible expenses for the above additional running expenses. If you’re using this method, you can’t claim an additional separate deduction for these expenses.

Do you want to maximise your home office or work-related home expenses on your tax return or use part of your home for income generating purposes? We can help you choose which deduction method to use in your tax return, fixed rate or actual cost and be sure you understand the capital gains tax (CGT) implications using your home that you own for income producing purposes.

Didn’t Labor promise a $1000 Instant Tax Deduction?

Theres a few things to know. $1000 Instant Tax Deduction does not affect your tax return until 2027 (will apply in the FY2026-27 tax year. This was not a promise to provide a $1000 refund, all that will change is the maximum $300 deduction claim without receipts increase to $1,000 in that year. This may lead to smaller tax refund if you rely on this and don’t save your receipts and work with your Tax Agent to maximise your tax return.

How to avoid an ATO Audit

The ATO has identified some key areas they will be focusing on this tax return season, including:

Inflating claims for rental properties:

The ATO will be focusing on investment property expense claims this year so be sure to retain adequate evidence and documents to substantiate costs for your tax return and be sure to know where you stand if your property was only rented for part the year, if you rent out as a short-term rental e.g., through Airbnb or if you use the property as a holiday home to avoid incorrect claims in your tax return and possible audits and findings under audit.

Incorrectly claiming work-related expenses:

The ATO will be focusing on work from home claims so ensure you are maintaining adequate records and apply the correct rates when calculating WFH claims. Remember, there are 3 golden rules for claiming a deduction for any work-related expense: you must have spent the money yourself and weren’t reimbursed, the expense must directly relate to earning your income, and you must have a record (usually a receipt) to prove it.

Failing to include all income when lodging:

The ATO is also keen to find taxpayers who are gaining other sources of income which they are not recording on their tax returns such as such as additional employment, rental income, or partnership, trusts and units’ income, investment income from share or crypto trading or some kind of business income or “side hustle”. The Labor federal government are investing in additional ATO officers and expanding data matching services to help with areas of focus and debt collection activities as evidenced by the record number of business insolvencies.

It’s a good time to implement new technology and systems

This time of year is a good time to look at implementing new technology to make your next tax year easier. We are currently recommending a new solution which helps individuals collect/track their tax activities throughout the year and also includes a number of tools tax clients will benefit from including:

Individuals who use direct cost methods for motor vehicle and work from home claims, need vehicle logbook and budgeting tools, and more from $9 /month
Individuals and Trusts with investment properties, track property related revenue and income to make tax time easy, calculate CGT, live tax summary and more from $15 /month
Individuals with stock, share, crypto holdings wanting to track portfolios in real time, from $6 /month
Sole traders looking for a more cost effect solution than the big accounting apps but with invoicing, bank feeds, vehicle logbook, and much more from $9 /month

We can help you implement your new systems and strategies we identify at our meeting at the beginning of the tax year to make your compliance work easy next year!

Why should you engage OnVenture as your Tax Agent to prepare your tax return?

OnVenture specialise in tax returns for entrepreneurs, those who work from home, home based businesses, property owners and investors and Tradies and are always developing new ways to improve the experience and outcomes for clients. Some key reasons to select us to do your tax return this year are:

Our popular online/phone assisted tax return service has been retained and remains our lowest cost option from $150.
Prefer to meet in person? Not a problem, we have office appointments in our Narre Warren offices starting from $220 or we have limited mobile appointments where we will come to your home or business from $250.
Our comprehensive tax return survey is a quick and easy way to ensure we have all the information we need to complete your tax return before your phone meeting.
Not able to join us on a tax return call during 9-5? No problem! We have increased our operating hours through July & August to include phone meeting appointment times:
- Prior to business hours from 7:30am to 9am on Tuesdays through to Fridays; and
- After business hours from 5pm to 6.30pm on Tuesdays through to Thursdays.

Maximise your return. With our broad industry knowledge, we are able to identify opportunities through our online survey and in-meeting consultation to ethically increase your deductions and maximise your return! Not just this year, we will give you advice to improve your outcomes next year as well.

New To OnVenture?

New tax clients who also refinance their home loan or investment loan with us will be eligible for a 50% discount on their tax return fees. Enjoy cheaper loan rates, potential cash back bonus and reduced tax return fees!

Ready to Go?

If you are a new client, give us a call on 1300 300 013 or book in your tax return appointments on the following links:

Phone assisted tax return call/zoom meeting: HERE
Narre Warren office appointment (will require post booking confirmation): HERE
Mobile tax return service at your home or office: HERE

Note:

Other services and fees maybe required for non-standard events and activities such as property rentals, capital gains events from asset sales and small business schedules, etc.
Your employer should be now reporting with STP and have until 14 July to finalise the STP reporting for the year. You will not receive a payment summary from your employer however can obtain an Income Statement if needed by logging into your MyGov account. If your employer has finalised their STP reporting for the year we will have access to your finalised wages income and tax withheld details via the ATO portal and do not need a payment summary (group certificate as they where one known by) or your new income statement.
50% discount on tax return fees are for new tax clients and excludes additional schedules such as rental property and business schedules.