Archive for December, 2011

This is my post for the year and hopefully I will be back in February 2012. I would like to take the time to wish all my clients, friends and readers a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. 

I am from the old school whereby Christmas was a time for Midnight Mass, friends, family, presents, a hot baked dinner, too much to eat, swimming, sunburn and a generally great time. These days it seems that to be politically correct we must stay out of the sun, leave Christ out of Christmas and wish everyone a Happy Holiday, well that is not me and it is not Australian. So have a very Merry and Holy Christmas.

The Christmas holiday season is also a wonderful time for us to remember the friends and customers who help our business grow and make our jobs a pleasure all year long. Our business would not be possible without your continued support. 

We will be closing on the 22nd of December at 12.00 pm, and will re-open on the 9th of January at 8.00 am.

So have a safe and happy Christmas, enjoy the break (if you get one), and safely see in the New Year, which, by the way is 2012.

 Boy, 2012, I remember celebrating the bi-centenary in 1988, what a party that was. I remember seeing in 2000 when the Y2K bug was supposed to destroy the world, now we have 2012 when global warming will melt the polar ice caps and we will all be flooded out. Way back in 2010 I commented on Teflon Kev’s policy on ETS which was to tax people out of existence in order to stop every one spending so manufacturing would cease and the world would cool down. Imagine, we now have the Greens in power with a female Prime Minister who whacked on a Carbon Dioxide tax to discourage spending. 

Next stop 2020 and we can revisit the hot spots of today. Y2K failed and so may ETS.

In closing we’d like to take this moment to again say thank you and send our best wishes to you and your families. May your new year be filled with all the success and happiness you deserve.

Merry Christmas from everyone at

Coulcher’s Personal Accounting & Taxation Services

What is refund fraud?

Refund fraud is the attempt to obtain a tax refund dishonestly by deception or other means. A variety of offences including non-lodgement of forms or receiving a fee for preparing an income tax return on behalf of a taxpayer while not being a registered tax agent.

Common types of refund fraud include deliberately over-claiming deductions, offsets, or expenses, by providing false or misleading information understating income and/or fictitious payment summary details. Intermediaries deliberately lodging false claims on behalf of clients (with and without client knowledge)

For example, A NSW plumbing company was convicted and fined $22,000 for 16 offences for failing to comply with court orders to lodge 4 income tax returns and 4 GST returns. So what is your situation?

An ACT bus driver was convicted and fined a total of $6,600 for 3 offences for failing to comply with court orders to lodge income tax returns.

A NSW concreting business owner was convicted and fined $17,000 for 21 offences for failure to comply with court orders to lodge quarterly business activity statements.

A NSW cleaner was sentenced to two and a half years in jail for making fraudulent BAS claims. She used forged documents in an attempt to obtain a financial advantage by deception.

Last Tuesday the federal Labor Government introduced a mid-year mini-budget. Surprise, surprise, there were yet more tax increases, probably so that they could afford the massive pay rises they voted for themselves.

 The current tax system is highly weighted against the single income family such that if you earn $30,000 you pay $2,550 tax yet if you were part of a married couple earning $15,000 each than no tax would be payable. Of course the politicians who set the rules listen to bureaucrats that get paid no matter how little work they do and have no idea how hard life is in the real world. Apparently their role is to identify tax savings without understanding the implications or collateral damage caused by those changes.

 Where am I going with this? Well I have a 55 year old client who currently earns $55,000 per annum. He has a stay at home wife. I cannot say that she is a non-working wife because she tells me she works harder than John. Now on the $55,000 he earns, John pays $10,375.00 in tax. As Joan does not have an income John is entitled to a spouse rebate of $2,286 meaning he only pays $8,089.00 Now, if both John and Joan worked and earned $27,500 each, the tax payable would be around $2,137.50 each or a total of $4,275.00, some $3,814 less than poor Johnny currently pays. Well the dingbats in Canberra have decided that John does not pay enough tax and, from 1 July 2012, have increased his tax bill by $43.96 per week or $2,286.00 per annum by abolishing the spouse rebate to which he is currently entitled. This means he now pays $6,100.00 more than a couple earning the same income. In fact a couple could earn a combined income in excess of $80,000 before they pay the same tax as John. Our mate Swanny thinks that if you were born after 1^st July 1952 then you should have a job. It’s great that we now have a government that looks after the workers.

 I have previously mentioned the imposition on employers by having to pay extra superannuation for their staff, well the mini-budget emphasised the Governments view on saving for retirement, they are against it. I have been a strong supporter of the Superannuation co-contribution scheme whereby low income earners could contribute to their super fund and, because they were saving for their retirement, the Government would assist by conbtributing$1.50 per $1. The Labor Government thought this was too generous and had already reduced the co-contribution to $1 per $1. Now they have totally stuffed the system and put out the message loud and clear, saving for retirement is not a good idea. They have virtually abolished the co-contribution scheme by limiting the amount you can contribute to your own super to $500 in order to qualify for a co-contribution amount of $250. Now with the way fund managers are managing superannuation funds what is the incentive to add extra to your super? For some strange reason the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia think this is a good idea. Have a great day, more next week.