ATO Reviews Tax Returns

A NEW anti-fraud computer system installed by the ATO earlier this year is helping to identify thousands of suspect claims.

Of the 3.6 million tax returns already lodged up to last week (September 2009), the ATO has identified more than 25,000 returns deemed to be "high risk", meaning they have a high probability of containing fraudulent information, worth about $260 million.

These returns are currently being investigated.

Such "high risk" claims include those submitted by unregistered agents, containing high one-off claims, or showing substantial increases from the previous year's claims.

"We are not suggesting all of these detected returns are fraudulent, however they are worthy of a closer look," says Commissioner of Taxation Michael D'Ascenzo.
"After our investigation ends, we expect that a minority will be found to be legitimate and will be processed accordingly," he says.

Lost PAYG Summary Details accessable from ATO

Pre-filling reports have been available to tax agents for three years now and can be very helpfull in obtaining lost client information. So if a client has lost a PAYG Payment Summary / certificate or interest details most likely we can obtain it from the pre-filling report.

The system is available to tax agents only and for 2009 has been improved to contain the following changes:

• paper individual non-business payment summaries (not lodged electronically) will be displayed in the 'PAYG payment summaries' section; however, these cannot be mapped to a label as the payment summaries do not indicate whether the payment is salary and wages or pensions
• the family tax benefit (FTB) claim status information has been removed as a result of the 2008 Federal Budget decision to move administration of FTB payments to the Family Assistance Office. FTB claims will not be accepted by the Tax Office after 30 June 2009
• there will be a reminder in the 'Medicare levy related items and private health insurance policy details' section about the special conditions affecting private health insurance cover for 2008–09
• private health insurance rebate details will be displayed under the 'Tax offsets' section
• new details or reminders will be displayed under the 'Important information' section (where relevant to clients) about:
  - rental property address details from the 2007–08 rental property schedules
  - pre-lodgment advisory letters
  - schedule of work-related expenses required with lodgment
  - forestry managed investment scheme income reminder
  - the entrepreneurs tax offset reminder
  - the remaining balance of a landcare and water facility tax offset
  - pay as you go (PAYG) income tax instalments
  - the accumulative low rate cap
  - income averaging for primary producers and special professionals, and
  - net farm management account deposits and/or withdrawals.

Demutualisation of AHM and Tax Implications

The demutualisation of AHM occured as a result of a merger with Medibank Private Ltd on 14 January 2009

If you were an eligible participating AHM member you were entitled to payment for the cancellation of your membership interest in AHM. Payment was made in stages. You would have received one or both of the following:

• an initial entitlement during the period 16 January 2009 to 29 January 2009
• a residual entitlement after the review process was completed in July 2009.

The ATO has ruled that both of these payments are NON-taxable

What are Reportable Super Contributions?

Your reportable super contributions are the sum of any of the following:

• personal deductible contributions you may have made (Your personal deductible contributions include any personal contributions you made to a super fund for which you can claim an income tax deduction on your individual tax return)
• reportable employer super contributions your employer may make for you (those contributions your employer makes for you where all of the following apply: you influenced the amount or rate of super your employer contributes; the contributions are additional to the compulsory contributions your employer must make under any of the following: super guarantee law; an industrial agreement; the trust deed or governing rules of a super fund; a federal, state or territory law.

For the 2009–10 income year and all future years, your reportable super contributions will affect the income tests for some tax offsets, the Medicare levy surcharge, and certain government benefits and obligations.

Accessing your Super

Promoters of arrangements to access superannuation savings has attracted ATO attention.

Except in some very specific circumstances, you cannot access your super savings until you reach retirement age (which is between age 55 and 60, depending on your date of birth).

The specific circumstance in which you can access your super savings early are very limited and tightly restricted – these are mainly related to specific medical conditions or when you are experiencing severe financial hardship.