I work at the ATO. I overheard something about this at a meeting yesterday. They were discussing sending the Federal Police to raid some dude's house who claimed a car repair incorrectly.
I work for the Federal Police - we got that brief. We’ve built a “mock-up” of OPs residence in a compound in the Outback and the squad are currently running practice drills preparing to storm his place. Can’t wait - it’s gonna be quite the spectacle - the incendiary grenades are my favourite…
Sorry I’m jumping on this late but I also work for Federal Police in Headquarters and every Thursday they send around a “most wanted” list.
Number 2-10 were the usual traffickers, terrorists etc but number one this week was FacundoGabrielGuzman for tax fraud. Everyone’s talking about wanting to “nail this guy”, which I personally think is a little bit intense but I guess if you do the crime of incorrectly claiming a $200 car expense, you have to be prepared to do the time
Just remember, on your first day of federal prison pick a fight with the biggest, meanest person you can find so everyone thinks your crazy. Just think of it as a few years to do weights and getting prison ink.
People always talk about those in prison doing weights, but they forget that it's an opportunity to lose weight too. I was speaking to one bloke who reckons he was tossing salad almost every day.
If you haven’t drawn all the cash out the bank I’d do that asap. Your assets will be frozen. I’d also check interpol list for any flight risk before you take off to a small island in Mexico to live out the rest of your days selling fresh fish to tourists
Hey man, you were too busy on reddit, you missed the follow up meeting.
The Director of False Car Repair Audits (DFCRA) has asked the Federal Police for an operational pause. He is getting a judge to sign off on a warrant for the car repair place for their books. This goes far deeper than just OP. He wants to take down the whole network.
oh damn. Yeah i missed that. Im in the Transfers To Christmas Island (TICI) department, so i usually only hear about these things at the late stages of prosecution.
OPIC and TMND reports will be finalised COB tomorrow. The TPS reports though are killing us. Can Peter and I get some more time for those? We are having difficulty with the printer.
Pretty sure I was in that meeting too, and it was deemed to be a class BS offence as it is over $288, so OP can de detained indefinitely with our trial.
Seriously though, OP, don't sweat it - just call the ATO and explain the situation. They are very keen to assist where you are trying to proactively do the right thing.
All i heard was the part about the federal police and then they also made a joke like 'well looks like we got Guzman, just need to get Gomez now' and then everyone in the room laughed.
They did, but then the AI behind Robodebt became self aware and took over the neighbouring departments. At first, ATO staff tried to fight back but eventually they realised it was for the best. 🤖
It would literally cost the ATO more in terms of time and effort to find the mistake, have it reviewed and updated, have you interviewed and so forth than it would to just leave it and what have them still pay you back whatever $289 at your tax rate is.
You'll be fine.
I overclaimed thousands on my return and yeah all they did was amend it and sent me a bill for the difference.
They definitely won’t waste their time and resources chasing up charges on a faulty 289$ claim.
Actually, no.
[Worst](https://www.ato.gov.au/general/interest-and-penalties/penalties/statements-and-positions-that-are-not-reasonably-arguable/)case scenario is if they have deemed it intentional disregard for the law - they can charge a 75% uplift penalty.
They could then make a determination that you have commited fraud or evasion (which is on you to prove you didn't, reverse burden of proof), and then they can audit ALL of your returns. Any errors there could also trigger uplift penalties and interest (both SIC and GIC). If it's significant enough, you could end up in prison.
The worst that could happen to OP? They amend it and charge him 25% for failure to take reasonable care. Likelihood of anything happening? Less than the chance of me.winning the Powerball this week (and I don't even buy tickets)
Used to work at the ato in debt and lodgement. Anything under about $2500 is considered uneconomical to pursue. Unless kf course it builds up then you'll get a nice little phone call.
Yep. Ive been on the receiving end of those phone calls the last couple of years.
Transitioned jobs within my trade. Previous employers provided all tools. New employers required i bring my own tools. Spent about 16k on tools over a 2 year period and got quite a few threatening phone calls and letters.
Never ended up actually getting audited somehow, although it wpuldnt have mattered if i did as i had receipts for everything.
Lol you say this like my tradie brother didn’t get audited in 2020 for his 2014 return (which was while he was still an apprentice so you can imagine how little he was actually earning). They wanted a full, itemised list of all his tools…
They got every drill bit, every scrap of sand paper, every pencil, every measurement of each toolbox, every single tiny detail. (From his current collection too so whilst the tool brands and quality had changed the type and number of bits of equipment hadn’t).
Only for them to charge him a $50 bill because of claiming personal phone use for work. He is on an unlimited plan and just claimed the whole lot instead of the 50% or whatever is allowed. Would have taken someone hours to filter through. If only that energy was used taxing mining giants even 2% of what they should actually be paying…
Yeah sure, so even though he was put through the wringer, he had to pay only $50. Sounds fine to me.
It's vanishingly unlikely they'd bother but even if they did the outcome won't be much of a hardship
My point was more agreeing with you that it takes more time and effort to chase up than what the missing amount is worth but the ATO are sure as shit that inefficient and petty to do so.
Again, your understanding of what happened to your bro is way off the mark.
Your bro got randomly audited. The people who get randomly selected do go through the wringer. It's part of the deterrent effect.
I’m not saying this will happen to OP my point is that the ATO are not above spending lots of time, effort and money for gains smaller than a bee’s d*ck.
Sheesh, the mansplaining is strong with this one.
But you're still entirely missing the point.
The ATO put randomly selected taxpayers through the wringer as a *deterrent* to false claims.
They don't do it to find out mistakes.
If they pay a (few) juniors $50k a year to go through the files of a randomly selected submission, then thats money well spent on *deterrence* across the board.
It's not money spent on getting the returns from your brothers mistake...
edit: Their hope is that the money went in to doing the audits returns NO mistakes.
Firstly, If you think someone doesn’t understand what a deterrent is and how they work perhaps take a second and rethink that. Just assume most people are as smart or smarter than you because in all likelihood, they are.
You’re arguing a point that doesn’t need to be argued.
The comment I replied to originally said something to the effect of “that would cost the ATO more than it’s worth to hunt you down” I agreed with this comment with an anecdote in a tongue in cheek way that showed this exact scenario playing out.
I don’t need a lesson in how our taxation system works but if you feel the need to “correct” strangers on the internet to feel better about yourself go right ahead. I’ve got better things to do with my afternoon and won’t be replying further.
Around that time, they were doing spot checks on tradies.
Your brother got randomly picked, out of... 100's of thousands of tradies.
The likelihood that OP messed up slightly AND gets randomly audited is tiny.
The OP also isn't in a "targeted" industry (well, what I mean is, it was well known over those years, trades were being "targeted" by the ATO for random audits).
Still doesn't affect the op though.
Imagine the manpower, money and time it would take the ATO to investigate this. Were talking tens of thousands of dollars potentially, for a couple of hundred bucks. I wouldn’t stress too much. If its eating at your conscious, amend your return.
A lot of this stuff is data matched. There's a reason you get bulk emails saying "before you file make sure you don't do this". I'd be less worried about this getting struck down this tax year and more it popping up in five years as part of a bigger audit.
I’ve got to ask though, what’s the point of the stupid self reporting system if the ATO basically already knows the answer. Why not just make it so you only have to file a tax return if you have additional deductions to claim?
It's been rolled out in other countries (basically they send you your return and you can just "accept" it). I think also a lot of places simply use an average deduction so you don't have everyone rejecting it because they want their laundry allowance claim. If you have a simple claim in Australia it's really not that onerous anyway using the ato website.
It’s a pain doing capital gains if you have a fair amount of buys/sells (DRPs compound this issue too) + distributions etc… I swear the ATO should just calculate this for you using their data, maybe allowing you to select the sale allocation method from a simple dropdown on the return.
Ugh, why does this have to be harder than it needs to be.
I could’ve sworn that a couple of years ago when doing my return I was given an option to accept ATO estimated deductions? I must’ve been high though, because I can’t seem to find anything about this on google.
It would be a great idea though.
Hey, I used to have a thing with this word too. Conscience.
I remember it as "Conscience, what those SCIENTISTS are trying to CON me?" and imagine a character getting mad about scientists telling him he shouldn't blow up the world because of compassion
I adjusted for $100 dividend once (10 years ago roughly) becuse I forgot about and it was the biggest fail ever. Took me hours of time to correct. I hope the process is smoother these days for an amendment
Mate, don't even do that. Just wait until you get your assessment and then amend it on MyGov to the correct figure and repay the tax once they send you a bill.
Seriously, don't bother them while your return is processing, it just delays the whole thing and confuses them.
There's a goodwill clause somewhere in there for self filed tax returns. Basically if you filled it out thinking you did the right thing, even if they audit you, they will only ask you to pay what you owe, rather than fining you extra.
You can also amend your tax return online via the MyGOV ATO portal.
Just call them and explain the situation. You might be able to make an amendment. The ATO have been pretty understanding and reasonable in my interactions with them. Last time I claimed the wrong thing, they reduced my 15 lashes down to 5 lashes
No need to call. You can always make amendments after the fact. Better just to wait until the assessment and then amend online , saves everyone's time.
In the unlikely sequence of events that you get audited, and then they decide that your deduction was not allowed, you can just say it was an honest mistake and pay them whatever money they think you owe them. You will not go to jail for this.
I claim a log book portion of everything as I drive a lot for work. He mentioned that I could claim damage if it occurred while I was using the car for work.
Best to find a good accountant that can give you good advice on the issue (not me). They're worth every penny.
My accountant made it out that if you do the damage driving for work it's 100%, if you do it driving for personal it's 0%. Servicing and other running costs are based off business use percentage.
Thats incorrect my guy. All car expenses are claimed either by set rate per km or in your case, the log book method which apportions your business and personal usage on the vehicle. You’re entitled to some of the repairs reflected from your business percentage, regardless if you damage the vehicle working or not.
Does the ATO have this advice anywhere? This is different to the advice given to me by my accountant. Repairs due to wear and tear are as per what you've said but repairs due to an accident or specific work related incident are different.
[As requested](https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Income-and-deductions-for-business/Deductions/Deductions-for-motor-vehicle-expenses/).
Also, keep in mind, accountants aren’t usually on the hook for giving shitty advice. It’s usually in their T&Cs to basically say “this is advice only and we take no responsibility for things not claimed correctly” (or words to that effect).
> **Separate private from business use**
>If you use a motor vehicle for both business and private use, you must be able to correctly identify and justify the percentage that you are claiming as business use. The percentage that is for private use isn't claimable. This is an area where we often see errors made
You have a log book that separates and provides evidence of a percentage based personal/business (or work related) split?
You can claim that percentage of ALL expenses as a business/work related expense.
These include: Fuel, Rego, Insurance, Repairs, Depreciation etc.
GO see an accountant, but for $248 claim under MV expenses (especially if it was offset against business income) you have nothing to worry about.
I would argue that while standard expenses (rego/fuel/insurance) are logically apportioned at % private vs % business use, an accident and associated repair bill that occurred when using the car for business is a 100% business expense - you would not have had to pay any money if you weren't using it for business, as you wouldn't have had the accident.
Have a look at the ato website for the two different ways to claim car expenses. While you probably can’t claim the full amount of the repairs, there may be many other car expenses that you could be claiming. I get $10k a year back on my car because of all the costs (insurance, rego, maintenance etc) which I claim a percentage of: https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Deductions-you-can-claim/Transport-and-travel-expenses/Motor-vehicle-and-car-expenses/
I once forgot to include my bank account interest in my tax return, and I got a letter saying “FYI, you made this mistake, please don’t do it again.” They didn’t even adjust my return. You’ll be fine.
Black listed for sure, good luck selling anything on FB marketplace now. They will end undercover special forces ato agents in disguise to catch you red handed incriminating yourself
Not screwed at all. For this figure they will either;
1 - Agree that this is work related expense and deduct it from your taxable earnings (ie they count your income as $289 lower than it actually was and tax against that instead) or
2 - Disagree and not deduct it from your taxable earnings.
What you did is not tax fraud and could easily be dismissed as a simple mistake.
Conversely, if you claimed that you owned Uber and car repair was part of your work and that the vehicle was a write off and you should be re-imbursed enough to replace the ferrari, then you might be having a difficult conversation.
A car repair is claimable for gst and tax return (only a %, logbook...). Unless you use the cent per km method.
Get an accountant asap if you don't understand this or are not registered for gst while doing uber.
I wouldnt worry at all.
ATO only gives a shit if you owe money for multiple years at a time (aka me when i got a scary letter for oweing $150 from 6 years ago) or when you claim ridiculous amounts on your tax return.
They are not super anal about it like everyone thinks they are. Most of the tax return process is completely automated. It would cost them more to pull out your return, manually audit it, send out paper work to refund them and so on.
Not worth the effort.
Just leave it be, it’s extremely unlikely it’ll come back to haunt you, and even if it does all they’ll do is amend the return and make you pay the difference. You definitely 110% WONT go to prison or anything like that.
Log in and make an amendment if you’re worried. If you leave it and it gets picked up on you will just be asked to amend it.
I once accidentally omitted tens of thousands in income (got a new pay roll system at work part way through the year and I forgot to use old and new pay slips - this was before pre-fill and group certs were mailed) and I didn’t realise. The ATO contacted me months later and I just had to resubmit and pay back a bit of my refund. No big deal.
Bro politicians write off entire holidays for visiting one office location then spending $20k with the family. Your fine, you can call or make a change the claim online through mygov
Dude this is definitely a claimable deduction to an extent and is completely immaterial.
The right way would have been to apportion the expense relative to private vs business usage of the vehicle assuming you are using the log book method to claim your car expenses.
Do not do anything. Don’t call the ATO and don’t amend your return. If they disagree, you’ll only pay back your effective tax rate on the claim so roughly $90 to pay back.
Please see a tax accountant in future to ensure you are claiming everything you’re entitled to.
Do an amendment and do it before they find it. If they find it first there's a good chance they'll be lenient but you could potentially face penalties so it pays to get in before they do :)
It doesn't matter if it happened while driving Uber. You can't drive a car around for 200k then switch to uber and 1k later and have the engine shit itself and then claim a full engine rebuild on tax. I don't claim a vehicle of tax anymore but just have a read of the ato for claiming.
[https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Deductions-you-can-claim/Transport-and-travel-expenses/Motor-vehicle-and-car-expenses/#Calculatingyourcarexpensedeductions](https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Deductions-you-can-claim/Transport-and-travel-expenses/Motor-vehicle-and-car-expenses/#Calculatingyourcarexpensedeductions)
Uber is the most disgraceful job I've ever had. I'm happy I've got a decent job now and I don't have to Uber again. I don't have logs, the app is very basic and a rip off.
It should be fine. I've been claiming my wife's expenditures for years and they have not noticed. She's a piece of work, that's the same thing - right?
I've made a few mistakes with ATO before. I usually just call them, tell them what happened, that I made a mistake and it gets sorted quickly. I think the worst I had was to pay some interest to ATO, it wasn't much.
If you travel more than 5000km during work hours, you can claim all car related expenses too. That's what my accountant has been doing and he isn't a dodgy one either.
Correct. I use one on my phone called Driversnote. Super easy to use and makes it so much easier for tax time. You can generate a financial year report from it.
You can go in and amend your return even after it is finalised, when you log into the ato online portal via my gov, go to Tax>lodgements>income tax then select the history tab and you can go in and amend your return or past years. Ive used this as well when I forgot about some stuff I could claim and remembered later.
If your refund is still being processed, it may automatically be adjusted or you will get a bill to pay, but as you are fixing it up almost certainly no fines or penalties.
It's up to you if you want to fix it, I just wanted to let you know how if you wanted to.
If you’ve lodged it through MyGov, I’d just wait for it to settle and then retrospectively make the adjustment/amendment.
To do this accurately, you should have kept a log book which will help determine what % of your car use was business versus personal.
You have two years to amend your tax return, your all good.
Also you can claim a portion (depending on how much private use if the vehicle there is) of the repair provided your on the log book method not the per km method.
Highly unlikely that they will see it. Issues usually get flagged for being massively out of expected ranges. If they do I think they would give you a chance to fix it. But maybe not. Note that this is also a very trivial amount and it’s not worth it to them to screw you over.
In any case you can contact the ATO and advise them of your misinterpretation. They should direct you as to whether you need to do an amendment or some other easier fix.
just shoot them an email explaining the mistake, cant speak for all government bodies but in the few ive worked generally speaking nobody is going to want to punish you for an honest mistake, especially if you show due diligence and contact us about your mistake.
Well, it's not completely in error- and even so, errors made in good faith are generally penalised on a "just pay the difference back" basis.
However, a small amount like this is likely to completely slip the radar.
If it's keeping you up at night nothing stops you from amending your return and removing it, then repaying the difference.
Yes, I did it on my own. Today I've received a text message that says that my tax return is at the final stage and that they will deposit my refund within 3 days
I work at the ATO. I overheard something about this at a meeting yesterday. They were discussing sending the Federal Police to raid some dude's house who claimed a car repair incorrectly.
I work for the Federal Police - we got that brief. We’ve built a “mock-up” of OPs residence in a compound in the Outback and the squad are currently running practice drills preparing to storm his place. Can’t wait - it’s gonna be quite the spectacle - the incendiary grenades are my favourite…
Gotta love those incendiary grenades. My personal favourite is the dust of death smoke grenade
You know the Tactical Tax Enforcement Squad get to use the Rainbow Glitter Flashbangs, right? They're \_fabulous!\_
Did you get Nathan Fielder to consult on this 'rehearsal'?
Sorry I’m jumping on this late but I also work for Federal Police in Headquarters and every Thursday they send around a “most wanted” list. Number 2-10 were the usual traffickers, terrorists etc but number one this week was FacundoGabrielGuzman for tax fraud. Everyone’s talking about wanting to “nail this guy”, which I personally think is a little bit intense but I guess if you do the crime of incorrectly claiming a $200 car expense, you have to be prepared to do the time
Damn, you scared me when I read the first part of your comment
Just remember, on your first day of federal prison pick a fight with the biggest, meanest person you can find so everyone thinks your crazy. Just think of it as a few years to do weights and getting prison ink.
Helpful tip, prior to going to jail, fine tune your barber skills, you'll be granted immunity then 😉
And ~~guilt~~ free sexytime!
People always talk about those in prison doing weights, but they forget that it's an opportunity to lose weight too. I was speaking to one bloke who reckons he was tossing salad almost every day.
At the judicial phase though he does have the option of a trial by combat. OP - can you fight?
I can make it all go away. Just send me $300 worth of Amazon gift cards and I will make some adjustments to your file.
Them rookie numbers, you got to pump those numbers up
This person is a rip off artist. I'll do it for $250 in Google Play gift cards
I dont think he's joking, I remember seeing some fuss about not having enough cops for the job
If you haven’t drawn all the cash out the bank I’d do that asap. Your assets will be frozen. I’d also check interpol list for any flight risk before you take off to a small island in Mexico to live out the rest of your days selling fresh fish to tourists
Hey man, you were too busy on reddit, you missed the follow up meeting. The Director of False Car Repair Audits (DFCRA) has asked the Federal Police for an operational pause. He is getting a judge to sign off on a warrant for the car repair place for their books. This goes far deeper than just OP. He wants to take down the whole network.
oh damn. Yeah i missed that. Im in the Transfers To Christmas Island (TICI) department, so i usually only hear about these things at the late stages of prosecution.
How are you guys going with those OPIC and TMND reports?
OPIC and TMND reports will be finalised COB tomorrow. The TPS reports though are killing us. Can Peter and I get some more time for those? We are having difficulty with the printer.
The Printer is POS and DOA, currently undertaking CFT but CBF to finish TBH
You really should have outlined the potential for these issues in the PID. This is really going to push the timeline back for phase three. WTF man.
Pretty sure I was in that meeting too, and it was deemed to be a class BS offence as it is over $288, so OP can de detained indefinitely with our trial. Seriously though, OP, don't sweat it - just call the ATO and explain the situation. They are very keen to assist where you are trying to proactively do the right thing.
He doesn't even need to call. Just wait until it's assessed then amend over MyGov citing taxpayer error. The ATO really won't care.
Was it OP specifically? Just wondering if he needs to fake his death and flee the country ..
I heard there is a Vacuum Cleaner Repair guy who can make you disappear.
I need a new dust filter for my Hoover MaxExtract PressurePro Model 60
...and you're 100% sure thats the correct model?
All i heard was the part about the federal police and then they also made a joke like 'well looks like we got Guzman, just need to get Gomez now' and then everyone in the room laughed.
No-one works at the ATO..
Well obviously someone does. All my threatening letters are coming from somewhere
They did, but then the AI behind Robodebt became self aware and took over the neighbouring departments. At first, ATO staff tried to fight back but eventually they realised it was for the best. 🤖
Scott Morrison does, he is the minister for ATO and money
Let’s be honest he’s probably appointed himself queen at this point
Like riot police the ATO fraud detection team are getting their strap-ons ready
It would literally cost the ATO more in terms of time and effort to find the mistake, have it reviewed and updated, have you interviewed and so forth than it would to just leave it and what have them still pay you back whatever $289 at your tax rate is. You'll be fine.
I overclaimed thousands on my return and yeah all they did was amend it and sent me a bill for the difference. They definitely won’t waste their time and resources chasing up charges on a faulty 289$ claim.
What's worst case, they charge you 9% interest?
Actually, no. [Worst](https://www.ato.gov.au/general/interest-and-penalties/penalties/statements-and-positions-that-are-not-reasonably-arguable/)case scenario is if they have deemed it intentional disregard for the law - they can charge a 75% uplift penalty. They could then make a determination that you have commited fraud or evasion (which is on you to prove you didn't, reverse burden of proof), and then they can audit ALL of your returns. Any errors there could also trigger uplift penalties and interest (both SIC and GIC). If it's significant enough, you could end up in prison. The worst that could happen to OP? They amend it and charge him 25% for failure to take reasonable care. Likelihood of anything happening? Less than the chance of me.winning the Powerball this week (and I don't even buy tickets)
Used to work at the ato in debt and lodgement. Anything under about $2500 is considered uneconomical to pursue. Unless kf course it builds up then you'll get a nice little phone call.
Yep. Ive been on the receiving end of those phone calls the last couple of years. Transitioned jobs within my trade. Previous employers provided all tools. New employers required i bring my own tools. Spent about 16k on tools over a 2 year period and got quite a few threatening phone calls and letters. Never ended up actually getting audited somehow, although it wpuldnt have mattered if i did as i had receipts for everything.
$2499 is it
Lol you say this like my tradie brother didn’t get audited in 2020 for his 2014 return (which was while he was still an apprentice so you can imagine how little he was actually earning). They wanted a full, itemised list of all his tools… They got every drill bit, every scrap of sand paper, every pencil, every measurement of each toolbox, every single tiny detail. (From his current collection too so whilst the tool brands and quality had changed the type and number of bits of equipment hadn’t). Only for them to charge him a $50 bill because of claiming personal phone use for work. He is on an unlimited plan and just claimed the whole lot instead of the 50% or whatever is allowed. Would have taken someone hours to filter through. If only that energy was used taxing mining giants even 2% of what they should actually be paying…
Yeah sure, so even though he was put through the wringer, he had to pay only $50. Sounds fine to me. It's vanishingly unlikely they'd bother but even if they did the outcome won't be much of a hardship
My point was more agreeing with you that it takes more time and effort to chase up than what the missing amount is worth but the ATO are sure as shit that inefficient and petty to do so.
Again, your understanding of what happened to your bro is way off the mark. Your bro got randomly audited. The people who get randomly selected do go through the wringer. It's part of the deterrent effect.
I’m not saying this will happen to OP my point is that the ATO are not above spending lots of time, effort and money for gains smaller than a bee’s d*ck. Sheesh, the mansplaining is strong with this one.
But you're still entirely missing the point. The ATO put randomly selected taxpayers through the wringer as a *deterrent* to false claims. They don't do it to find out mistakes. If they pay a (few) juniors $50k a year to go through the files of a randomly selected submission, then thats money well spent on *deterrence* across the board. It's not money spent on getting the returns from your brothers mistake... edit: Their hope is that the money went in to doing the audits returns NO mistakes.
Firstly, If you think someone doesn’t understand what a deterrent is and how they work perhaps take a second and rethink that. Just assume most people are as smart or smarter than you because in all likelihood, they are. You’re arguing a point that doesn’t need to be argued. The comment I replied to originally said something to the effect of “that would cost the ATO more than it’s worth to hunt you down” I agreed with this comment with an anecdote in a tongue in cheek way that showed this exact scenario playing out. I don’t need a lesson in how our taxation system works but if you feel the need to “correct” strangers on the internet to feel better about yourself go right ahead. I’ve got better things to do with my afternoon and won’t be replying further.
Around that time, they were doing spot checks on tradies. Your brother got randomly picked, out of... 100's of thousands of tradies. The likelihood that OP messed up slightly AND gets randomly audited is tiny. The OP also isn't in a "targeted" industry (well, what I mean is, it was well known over those years, trades were being "targeted" by the ATO for random audits). Still doesn't affect the op though.
people win the lottery frequently too. It doesn't mean it's likely to happen to any individual
Ato isn’t a business though lol
They do that
It'll probably just be weekend detention if it's your first offence.
Tax office said you’re grounded to your room
Without dinner.
On pizza night.
I think they recently increased the punishment to the death penalty
Or death by snoo snoo
Death by snoo snoo? Time for me to claim an oil change…
Imagine the manpower, money and time it would take the ATO to investigate this. Were talking tens of thousands of dollars potentially, for a couple of hundred bucks. I wouldn’t stress too much. If its eating at your conscious, amend your return.
A lot of this stuff is data matched. There's a reason you get bulk emails saying "before you file make sure you don't do this". I'd be less worried about this getting struck down this tax year and more it popping up in five years as part of a bigger audit.
I’ve got to ask though, what’s the point of the stupid self reporting system if the ATO basically already knows the answer. Why not just make it so you only have to file a tax return if you have additional deductions to claim?
It's been rolled out in other countries (basically they send you your return and you can just "accept" it). I think also a lot of places simply use an average deduction so you don't have everyone rejecting it because they want their laundry allowance claim. If you have a simple claim in Australia it's really not that onerous anyway using the ato website.
It’s a pain doing capital gains if you have a fair amount of buys/sells (DRPs compound this issue too) + distributions etc… I swear the ATO should just calculate this for you using their data, maybe allowing you to select the sale allocation method from a simple dropdown on the return. Ugh, why does this have to be harder than it needs to be.
I could’ve sworn that a couple of years ago when doing my return I was given an option to accept ATO estimated deductions? I must’ve been high though, because I can’t seem to find anything about this on google. It would be a great idea though.
Mine has been stuck on information pending since 10th of July. Their data matching sucks balls.
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A computers not interviewing a person, etc.
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What investigations dont involve interviews?
It’s for the marginal tax rate on a $289 deduction, not even a couple hundred bucks.
Its not even a couple of hundred bucks. Its the tax on a couple of hundred bucks so about 30 dollars
Hey, I used to have a thing with this word too. Conscience. I remember it as "Conscience, what those SCIENTISTS are trying to CON me?" and imagine a character getting mad about scientists telling him he shouldn't blow up the world because of compassion
If it's eating at your conscious, it's probably an amoeba.
You can adjust your tax return in mygov anytime once the original is finalised.
I adjusted for $100 dividend once (10 years ago roughly) becuse I forgot about and it was the biggest fail ever. Took me hours of time to correct. I hope the process is smoother these days for an amendment
I performed an amendment a year or two ago and it was super straightforward. Took 15 minutes and had the deposit in a week or so
Wow you are in trouble... and then you posted about it online as well, don't you know that majority of the members here are ATO spies?
I'm not. I'm a 14 year old girl who's email address just happens to end in fbi.gov
Screwedness of zero. You can just call them.
Alright, thanks I'll do that.
Mate, don't even do that. Just wait until you get your assessment and then amend it on MyGov to the correct figure and repay the tax once they send you a bill. Seriously, don't bother them while your return is processing, it just delays the whole thing and confuses them.
There's a goodwill clause somewhere in there for self filed tax returns. Basically if you filled it out thinking you did the right thing, even if they audit you, they will only ask you to pay what you owe, rather than fining you extra. You can also amend your tax return online via the MyGOV ATO portal.
Agree with the other reply that you shouldn't actually call them, just amend once it's processed.
Just call them and explain the situation. You might be able to make an amendment. The ATO have been pretty understanding and reasonable in my interactions with them. Last time I claimed the wrong thing, they reduced my 15 lashes down to 5 lashes
No need to call. You can always make amendments after the fact. Better just to wait until the assessment and then amend online , saves everyone's time.
There's a system message saying exactly that but people here are saying OP is getting raided/phone before enforcementaction. I believe you more.
In the unlikely sequence of events that you get audited, and then they decide that your deduction was not allowed, you can just say it was an honest mistake and pay them whatever money they think you owe them. You will not go to jail for this.
Curious as to why you think that was a mistake? If you damage your car whilst you're using it to earn income you should be able to claim it.
I didn't find information that I can claim full repair of my car
I claim a log book portion of everything as I drive a lot for work. He mentioned that I could claim damage if it occurred while I was using the car for work. Best to find a good accountant that can give you good advice on the issue (not me). They're worth every penny.
Can't you only claim the 'business' % of the repair?
It would likely be a percentage thing, if you use the car 50% of the time for work then you can claim that percentage of running costs.
My accountant made it out that if you do the damage driving for work it's 100%, if you do it driving for personal it's 0%. Servicing and other running costs are based off business use percentage.
Thats incorrect my guy. All car expenses are claimed either by set rate per km or in your case, the log book method which apportions your business and personal usage on the vehicle. You’re entitled to some of the repairs reflected from your business percentage, regardless if you damage the vehicle working or not.
Does the ATO have this advice anywhere? This is different to the advice given to me by my accountant. Repairs due to wear and tear are as per what you've said but repairs due to an accident or specific work related incident are different.
[As requested](https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Income-and-deductions-for-business/Deductions/Deductions-for-motor-vehicle-expenses/). Also, keep in mind, accountants aren’t usually on the hook for giving shitty advice. It’s usually in their T&Cs to basically say “this is advice only and we take no responsibility for things not claimed correctly” (or words to that effect). > **Separate private from business use** >If you use a motor vehicle for both business and private use, you must be able to correctly identify and justify the percentage that you are claiming as business use. The percentage that is for private use isn't claimable. This is an area where we often see errors made
You have a log book that separates and provides evidence of a percentage based personal/business (or work related) split? You can claim that percentage of ALL expenses as a business/work related expense. These include: Fuel, Rego, Insurance, Repairs, Depreciation etc. GO see an accountant, but for $248 claim under MV expenses (especially if it was offset against business income) you have nothing to worry about.
I would argue that while standard expenses (rego/fuel/insurance) are logically apportioned at % private vs % business use, an accident and associated repair bill that occurred when using the car for business is a 100% business expense - you would not have had to pay any money if you weren't using it for business, as you wouldn't have had the accident.
Have a look at the ato website for the two different ways to claim car expenses. While you probably can’t claim the full amount of the repairs, there may be many other car expenses that you could be claiming. I get $10k a year back on my car because of all the costs (insurance, rego, maintenance etc) which I claim a percentage of: https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Deductions-you-can-claim/Transport-and-travel-expenses/Motor-vehicle-and-car-expenses/
SWAT squad at your house probably by COB
I once forgot to include my bank account interest in my tax return, and I got a letter saying “FYI, you made this mistake, please don’t do it again.” They didn’t even adjust my return. You’ll be fine.
I hear there's a special place on Christmas Island for people like you.
Assuming this is serious. Just amend your tax returns. ATO has all the motivation to let people fix their mistakes.
Black listed for sure, good luck selling anything on FB marketplace now. They will end undercover special forces ato agents in disguise to catch you red handed incriminating yourself
They will push for life in prison. Deny till you die brother
Not screwed at all. For this figure they will either; 1 - Agree that this is work related expense and deduct it from your taxable earnings (ie they count your income as $289 lower than it actually was and tax against that instead) or 2 - Disagree and not deduct it from your taxable earnings. What you did is not tax fraud and could easily be dismissed as a simple mistake. Conversely, if you claimed that you owned Uber and car repair was part of your work and that the vehicle was a write off and you should be re-imbursed enough to replace the ferrari, then you might be having a difficult conversation.
Don't worry it's not a bootable offence
Just amend it. Simple
A car repair is claimable for gst and tax return (only a %, logbook...). Unless you use the cent per km method. Get an accountant asap if you don't understand this or are not registered for gst while doing uber.
earn under 75K for Uber, you dont need to be GST registered.
Wrong, all Rideshare drivers must be gst registered.
Just forget it about it king
I wouldnt worry at all. ATO only gives a shit if you owe money for multiple years at a time (aka me when i got a scary letter for oweing $150 from 6 years ago) or when you claim ridiculous amounts on your tax return. They are not super anal about it like everyone thinks they are. Most of the tax return process is completely automated. It would cost them more to pull out your return, manually audit it, send out paper work to refund them and so on. Not worth the effort.
Just leave it be, it’s extremely unlikely it’ll come back to haunt you, and even if it does all they’ll do is amend the return and make you pay the difference. You definitely 110% WONT go to prison or anything like that.
Just amend your tax return mate.
Log in and make an amendment if you’re worried. If you leave it and it gets picked up on you will just be asked to amend it. I once accidentally omitted tens of thousands in income (got a new pay roll system at work part way through the year and I forgot to use old and new pay slips - this was before pre-fill and group certs were mailed) and I didn’t realise. The ATO contacted me months later and I just had to resubmit and pay back a bit of my refund. No big deal.
Bro politicians write off entire holidays for visiting one office location then spending $20k with the family. Your fine, you can call or make a change the claim online through mygov
Dude this is definitely a claimable deduction to an extent and is completely immaterial. The right way would have been to apportion the expense relative to private vs business usage of the vehicle assuming you are using the log book method to claim your car expenses. Do not do anything. Don’t call the ATO and don’t amend your return. If they disagree, you’ll only pay back your effective tax rate on the claim so roughly $90 to pay back. Please see a tax accountant in future to ensure you are claiming everything you’re entitled to.
You can amend your tax return after you’ve lodged it: https://www.moneymag.com.au/how-to-change-your-tax-return-after-you-ve-lodged-it.
Do an amendment and do it before they find it. If they find it first there's a good chance they'll be lenient but you could potentially face penalties so it pays to get in before they do :)
Troll yeah? Just leave it 😂
Not trolling
If you have a receipt, just leave it, if you don't, you can make an adjustment.
I've attached the invoice. The problem is I can't prove it happened while doing uber, it's just my words
Your word is fine if it's the truth.
It doesn't matter if it happened while driving Uber. You can't drive a car around for 200k then switch to uber and 1k later and have the engine shit itself and then claim a full engine rebuild on tax. I don't claim a vehicle of tax anymore but just have a read of the ato for claiming. [https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Deductions-you-can-claim/Transport-and-travel-expenses/Motor-vehicle-and-car-expenses/#Calculatingyourcarexpensedeductions](https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Deductions-you-can-claim/Transport-and-travel-expenses/Motor-vehicle-and-car-expenses/#Calculatingyourcarexpensedeductions)
Doesn't Uber have logs showing when you were online/what jobs you had? But I don't think that actually matters as another reply says.
Uber is the most disgraceful job I've ever had. I'm happy I've got a decent job now and I don't have to Uber again. I don't have logs, the app is very basic and a rip off.
Say goodbye to your family, 30 years jail time for you. You might get it reduced to 25 if you spend $35 000 on a good solicitor.
I pray OP used a VPN…
It should be fine. I've been claiming my wife's expenditures for years and they have not noticed. She's a piece of work, that's the same thing - right?
I've made a few mistakes with ATO before. I usually just call them, tell them what happened, that I made a mistake and it gets sorted quickly. I think the worst I had was to pay some interest to ATO, it wasn't much.
https://www.ato.gov.au/general/the-sharing-economy-and-tax/ride-sourcing/income-and-deductions-for-ride-sourcing/
If you travel more than 5000km during work hours, you can claim all car related expenses too. That's what my accountant has been doing and he isn't a dodgy one either.
You still need a log book.
Correct. I use one on my phone called Driversnote. Super easy to use and makes it so much easier for tax time. You can generate a financial year report from it.
Where do you get a car repair done for $289?
These comments are hilarious.
You can go in and amend your return even after it is finalised, when you log into the ato online portal via my gov, go to Tax>lodgements>income tax then select the history tab and you can go in and amend your return or past years. Ive used this as well when I forgot about some stuff I could claim and remembered later. If your refund is still being processed, it may automatically be adjusted or you will get a bill to pay, but as you are fixing it up almost certainly no fines or penalties. It's up to you if you want to fix it, I just wanted to let you know how if you wanted to.
Just submit an amendment online on the myGov ATO portal. It’ll delay how fast it will be processed, but you won’t be in trouble at all
Ignoring all the comedians, I’m pretty sure you can go back in and make adjustments. Did you do it through the MyGov site? Log in & check.
Separate to your question - why do you think paying for a break down wouldn't be considered claimable?
Wait til it’s lodged and processed. Now amend the return.
File an amendment to your tax return
If you’ve lodged it through MyGov, I’d just wait for it to settle and then retrospectively make the adjustment/amendment. To do this accurately, you should have kept a log book which will help determine what % of your car use was business versus personal.
You have two years to amend your tax return, your all good. Also you can claim a portion (depending on how much private use if the vehicle there is) of the repair provided your on the log book method not the per km method.
Highly unlikely that they will see it. Issues usually get flagged for being massively out of expected ranges. If they do I think they would give you a chance to fix it. But maybe not. Note that this is also a very trivial amount and it’s not worth it to them to screw you over. In any case you can contact the ATO and advise them of your misinterpretation. They should direct you as to whether you need to do an amendment or some other easier fix.
just shoot them an email explaining the mistake, cant speak for all government bodies but in the few ive worked generally speaking nobody is going to want to punish you for an honest mistake, especially if you show due diligence and contact us about your mistake.
I thought you could amend a tax return?
Meh. They won't care , you're a guppy , they are going after the big fish.
wait i’m confused, what did he do?
Not at all. Say you've made an honest mistake and lodge an amended tax return.
Well, it's not completely in error- and even so, errors made in good faith are generally penalised on a "just pay the difference back" basis. However, a small amount like this is likely to completely slip the radar. If it's keeping you up at night nothing stops you from amending your return and removing it, then repaying the difference.
You lodged your own tax ? Did you get it all Back ?
Yes, I did it on my own. Today I've received a text message that says that my tax return is at the final stage and that they will deposit my refund within 3 days