How to Get Moving Again If You’re Feeling Stuck

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If you’re feeling like nothing is working the way you want them to or your path towards the future is blurry, you can easily find yourself in a state of paralysis or reluctant resignation.

If you want to take control of your destiny, you mustn’t stay stuck or accept defeat. Here are steps to help you get moving again if you are feeling stuck:

1. Stop beating your head against a brick wall.

If you’re not seeing any results despite doing everything you can to get things moving, there’s no use continuing them. What you can do is reserve a block of time in your schedule to devote to the issue, and then do nothing until the scheduled time arrives.

The objective here is to go back to the issue with new perspective, restored energy and a change in attitude, so if the issue comes to your mind in the interim, tell yourself that you have set a time for you to revisit it. While waiting for this time do something else, like going for a walk or even going on a holiday if the problem you are experiencing has more significant consequences.

2. Take a look at the big picture again.

Usually when we’re stuck, the reason is we’re focusing more on the problems rather than on our objectives. When it’s time to go back to the topic, the first thing you should do is re-acquaint yourself with the reasons why the topic is crucial for you and what your objectives are for embarking on it.

Perhaps, if you stop thinking about the ways you can make things happen and instead concentrate on your best-case scenario outcome, you’d change from a defeatist attitude into a can-do one.

3. Focus on what you can do.

If you’re analysis of the big picture reveals that you’re on the right course and the issue you’re pursuing is one that you are fully committed to, you may still be hindered by still being clueless about the steps that you need to do to make a breakthrough.

But in most cases, we have some idea on what needs to be done, even if you don’t yet have a complete grasp of all the things that you should know.

When you find yourself at this stage, it may help to move away from the computer and go old school with pen and paper to come up with a list or a mind map of all the tasks and objectives you need to complete to accomplish your big picture outcome.

After you have done this, you will usually realise that you can’t fix everything in one go, but there are some things you know how to deal with and you have a starting point.

Finally, you can get moving, and as you do, it becomes obvious that you are starting to get un-stuck, often due to the fact that you are tackling the project with renewed energy, rather than feeling weighed down by it.

4. Have fun doing your project.

If you are still feeling overwhelmed, or you’re feeling like you’re not gaining any traction, why not make a game of some aspects of it?

For example, you’d decided to pursue an opportunity that you did budget for and the cost is so far out of your reach, but it’s a smart move on a big-picture perspective. If you commit to doing it, you can challenge yourself in thinking of the cheapest ways you can participate in this opportunity. Think of wild and wacky ways you can reach your goals while spending the least amount of money.

A process that had initially caused you stress becomes much more fun, and you can also learn some really important insights about ways you can think outside of the box when you need to.

5. Applying what you’ve learned in future projects.

If you don’t commit to learning everything about yourself, your business and what works throughout the process, and applying what you’ve learned, none of the steps recommended above will work.

Usually, an undertaking that is big enough to overwhelm you will also be big enough to encompass multiple layers or moving parts. Applying the steps repeatedly can help you get unstuck.

If you are considering outsourcing your bookkeeping, accounting and other business-related processes, while still involved in making the big decisions and remain in control, contact PJS Accountants. We have over 30 years’ experience with local Redlands businesses. Our team will be at your disposal, always ready to receive your calls and provide services, to help you to stay in charge of all aspects of your business. Call us for enquiries on how PJS Accountants can partner with you to improve your business.

Substantiation Requirements for Home Office Deductions

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Same as other deductions, records for home office expenses must be kept for five years.

But in reality, it may be difficult to fully comply with the ATO’s substantiation requirements. While it may be easy to keep the receipt for a printer bought for your home office, proving the deductible proportion of a particular utility bill may not be so. To solve this problem, some administrative guidelines have been provided by the ATO.

Substantiating business use proportion

There are three methods for computing the business use proportion for a specific expense. Here they are in order of preference by the ATO:

  1. Explicit proof of business use, like an itemised phone bill.
  2. Records of representative periods of use, like a diary record covering a period of 4 weeks (details below).
  3. A ‘reasonable estimate’, this term is not defined by the ATO, but the taxpayer is required to show that a particular item was ‘reasonably likely’ under the circumstances.

4-week representative records

Claims over $50

The taxpayer is required to save records for a 4-week representative period in every income year so that they can claim a deduction exceeding $50. Whether the $50 cap applies for every expense type or in total is not clear.

The taxpayer can elect to maintain records for more than 4 weeks or to use their deduction on itemised bills (see above) for the full year as the basis for a more accurate deduction. The 4-week record is just the least amount of record-keeping that the tax office will take. Providing a time-limited representative record such as the 12-week logbook for car expense deductions is not a legal requirement.

Don’t forget to correct the deduction for the number of holidays taken.

Proof that the employer expects the taxpayer to work from home or make business-related calls will be looked at favourably by the ATO. But note that the employer expectation is not required by law. According to regulation and common law pertaining to work-related costs, that costs are incurred while earning assessable income and are not personal, domestic or capital in nature is sufficient.

Claims of $50 or below

Though it is not explicitly stated, it can be inferred that the ATO will not be undertaking substantiation checks on claims of $50 or less. But this only applies to the substantiation of the amount, and the taxpayer is still required by law to deduct the amount. Thus, it would be wise for the taxpayer to keep evidence that some work was undertaken from home during the year.

Shared expenses

The ATO accepts an invoice in the name of one person as proof of shared expenses. This may apply if spouses or housemates in shared accommodations each carry out work from home, using shared utilities.

If you have questions or need assistance about home office deductions, contact PJS Accountants. We offer expertise in managing your tax affairs with a full range of compliance, corporate and individual tax services, whether you are a large company, SME, family business or individual. Meet with one of our expert advisers now and ensure you are always compliant with ATO rules.

Facts that Taxpayers Need to Know About Private Rulings

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For taxpayers who could be thinking that the ATO’s recent move to improve and streamline private ruling applications translates into “open slather”, here are some sober facts you need to know.

Of course, taxpayers who are worried that their situation may place them in an unfamiliar spot tax-wise can apply for a private ruling. Examples of these situations may be a specific transaction or occasion that does not fit any recognised method for tax purposes, or an individual seeking to minimise the chance of having to pay an exorbitant amount of tax as a result of an unusual financial arrangement.

By applying for a private tax ruling, you can test drive a tax deal that you may be thinking about, particularly if you can’t find any existing information from the ATO that applies to it.

But remember that these decisions are one-off, that is, each ruling is specific to whoever applied for it. This means a ruling cannot be used as a benchmark by other taxpayers.

Similarly, if a taxpayer finds a ruling and decides to use it because their situation seems to be roughly similar, they must know that they will not be protected from using that ruling if the ATO decides that their circumstances should have had another result.

The word “binding” is included in the term used for these rulings. This signifies that if you obtain a private ruling from the ATO, and decides to apply it on your tax situation, the ATO is normally obliged to dispense the tax law as provided in that ruling.

Aside from income tax laws, private rulings can also cover luxury cars, goods and services tax and other indirect taxes. You can also apply for a private ruling if you need a resolution on whether an activity is a business or a hobby, or what the value of an item is.

PJS Accountants can represent you in applying for a private ruling, or you can lodge it yourselves. For businesses, the application can be filed by a public officer, a trustee of a trust or a partner of a partnership.

Lastly, ensure that you are aware that just because they requested you to apply for a private ruling, doesn’t mean you would automatically get one. The ATO can reject the request if it believes a ruling would restrict or prejudice the law. It can also deny the application if an audit is being conducted on your client on the same matter, or if their application is deemed as “frivolous” or “vexatious” by the ATO.

Are you considering filing an application for a private ruling with the ATO? The process has been made easy, but it is recommended that you seek the help of your accountant, or you can contact PJS Accountants. We offer expertise in managing your tax affairs with a full range of compliance, corporate and individual tax services, whether you are a large company, SME, family business or individual. Meet with one of our expert advisers now and ensure you are always compliant with ATO rules.

Tips for Staying Productive on the Road

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Giving your team fancy gadgets is just one way to make sure they stay productive on the road. There is also finding the right tools to help you and your team make the most of each work day.

Mobile productivity drive

On impulse, you’d probably think that shopping for gadgets is the first step to begin your mobile productivity push. But treat this as any other IT project; the first thing you should do is consider your requirements and identify your objectives.

With your objectives in mind, you are more capable of evaluating the appropriate apps, hardware and services for your requirements.

For sharing documents among your team, you should first look at online office suites, such as Google Docs, Microsoft’s Office 365 and Apple’s iWork.

Coordinating among team members can be done using corporate messaging apps such as Slack and project management tools like Basecamp. With so many collaboration services available, it would serve you well to research and do a trial instead of buying the first thing you come across.

Find apps or services that work well with any device and consider carefully before using closed ecosystems that would lock you to specific providers.

Free services are tempting, but don’t close your mind to paid business-grade options. Don’t limit your review on just advanced features, but also consider improved customer support and service level agreements.

The proper gadget for the task

In terms of portable productivity tools, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. You have to find the balance between portability, usability and battery life, taking into account how the team members spend their day.

If you’ve decided on using apps and services that work on any device then each member probably doesn’t need to have the same hardware. This way you can freely review all kinds of smartphones, tablets, notebooks and hybrid devices.

Business-issued and Bring Your Own Device options are also worth considering.
Rather than wasting time deciding between Windows and Mac, or Android and Apple, focus on defining a few use cases and user profiles.

For example, some employees spend most of their time on their desks, while others are always on the field.

Some need batteries that can last all day, while others are within easy reach of a power outlet or car charger. Some personnel always have access to Wi-Fi, while others require mobile broadband to be on hand.

Portability is an important requirement for devices that will often be used while on the road, while screen glare is a consideration for devices when used outside.

Employees whose task is to create and edit documents may require a decent physical keyboard.

When you identify what each of your employee needs in a portable productivity device, and the work they will be doing on the device, it would be much easier to pair them with the right hardware for the task.

Maintaining constant communication

Access to a reliable mobile voice and data service is important to stay productive on the road, but you have to consider other things aside from receiving a great deal on your handset.

There are many business-grade mobile plans out there, but nowadays there’s a good chance you would need mobile data more.

Find options like the ability to integrate separate data-only SIM cards for notebooks and tablets and combine data allowances.

If you are running a large organisation, you would have to find business-grade tools like a central portal to oversee all of your mobile accounts.

It is also important to read the fine print about excess data charges and global roaming rates so you won’t be shocked when you get your monthly bill.

If you require bookkeeping, accounting and other business-related processes, contact PJS Accountants. We have been working together with local Redlands businesses for over 30 years. We will be accessible at all times, always ready to receive your calls and assist you to make sure you remain in charge of all aspects of your business. We will be your reliable partner as you strive to improve your business.

The ATO Reveals What Attracts Its Attention

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According to the ATO, there are particular behaviours, characteristics and tax concerns that draw its notice.

But because it concentrates more on making sure that taxpayers get things right rather than on the trouble and costs of pursuing every tax offender, the tax office has revealed the incidents or circumstances that are more likely to raise a red flag.

Below are the behaviours and characteristics that may land you in trouble with the ATO:

  • Tax or economic performance is not comparable to similar businesses
  • Low transparency of tax affairs
  • Huge, one-time or odd transactions, including transfer or shifting of wealth
  • A record of aggressive tax planning
  • Tax outcomes that conflict with the objective of tax law
  • Electing not to follow or habitually taking contentious interpretations of the law
  • Standard of living not substantiated by after-tax income
  • Managing private assets as business assets
  • Using business assets for tax-free personal use
  • Poor governance and risk-management systems.

Also, the ATO’s risk antennae is more sensitive to certain matters of taxation, such as CGT, FBT, private company profit extraction (including Div 7A), the taxation of financial arrangements, and more. The use of trust is also included in this list.

Trusts

With trusts, there are a number of compliance issues that draw the ATO’s attention, such as the distributions from discretionary trusts to SMSFs, which “are subject to the non-arm’s length income rules and the amount is treated as non-arm’s length income and taxed at the highest tax rate of 45%”.

The ATO’s pays particular attention to the following details:

  • The complying superannuation fund (generally SMSF) is a beneficiary of a trust.
  • The trust is not a fixed trust (or one with fixed entitlements to income) and is not widely held.
  • Distribution by trust to complying superannuation fund.
  • Superannuation fund does not report amount as non-arm’s length income.

Differences between distributable and taxable income, and distribution to tax-preferred entities

Of particular interest to the ATO is the differences between distributable and taxable income of a trust and its taxable (or net) income, which can be used by individuals getting the monetary benefit of trust distributions to escape paying tax on them.

The setups consist of:

  • The trustee settles on a drastically decreased trust distributable income contrasted against the trust taxable income.
  • The inclusion of a tax concessional beneficiary to receive entitlement to the small trust distributable income along with the huge liability to tax generated from the trust taxable income.

Here are the possible circumstances for the tax concessional beneficiary:

  • Have huge losses in the past year.
  • Have minimal resources that are insufficient to cover the tax liability arising from the distribution.
  • Be assessed at a significantly lower rate (or not at all) than those ultimately getting the monetary benefits through this setup.
  • While these situations may generally be the standard, they are not standard where the trustee directs the trust’s distributable income for this purpose.

Another red-flag to the ATO is distributing mostly to tax-preferred entities. This is a situation where a beneficiary is exempt from tax, in a loss circumstance or is a newly-established company.

Treating income as capital

The ATO also has their eye on trusts that are running a business of divesting an asset as part of an income-generating operation. It is the job of the tax office to make sure these trusts are not claiming the 50% CGT discount on the profits earned by selling an asset, or establishing this as part of a business.

The ATO says: “Inappropriate characterisation as capital can occur where property developers set up special purpose trusts and report any profits from the ultimate sale of the property on capital account in order to claim the 50% CGT discount. These profits should be on revenue account for tax purposes because the property is sold as part of a profit-making undertaking.”

The ATO advises that if you have concerns about a particular tax or super position to (1) seek guidance from the ATO or (2) request a self-amendment or make a voluntary disclosure to correct a mistake.

See a qualified tax advisor, accountant or bookkeeper if you have questions or concerns about tax matters. This will prevent you from making a mistake, or worst drawing the attention of the taxman. PJS Accountants can help you organise your tax affairs. We work with large companies, SMEs, family businesses and individuals. For enquiries, contact PJS Accountants.