The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is on the move to crack down on landlords that incorrectly claim or omit items for investment properties on their tax return. The ATO found nearly 9 out 10 landlords making various mistakes such as submitting incorrect claimed expenses and rental income.

Assistant tax commissioner Tim Loh said the Tax Office was targeting areas where people often made mistakes on their returns such as leaving out rental income and overclaiming expenses. “We encourage rental property owners and their registered tax agents to take extra care this tax time and review their records before lodging their return,” Loh said.

Not having the eligible expenses digitally stored and correctly categorised in one place is a big hassle when it comes to tax time.

Senior Accountant Anthony Fernando from Xantias financial management says that he sees this all the time while he assists many clients with their tax returns. “Clients are time poor and need to collate all their expenses for claims. They also need to be aware of what expenses are claimable as per ATO’s standards. A good tax accountant can guide you through.” 

It takes a lot of time and effort to pay bills relating to investment properties and keep on top of records for expenses. Maintaining proper records is important to calculate and substantiate your deductions.

An Australian technology company called Gobbill has been helping property and business owners over the last 5 years. The system automatically does the data entry of bills, check for any fraud/scams, pays the bill before the due date and allocates the bill to correct property (or entity) after the initial setup. This helps property investors to avoid errors, save them a lot of time throughout the year and remove the hassle of finding eligible claims at tax time.

Gobbill is a solution used by many Australian property investors to organise and automate all their bill payments, then store in one place the relevant expense claims. It removes the hassle of finding all the expenses when it comes to tax time. Our clients just export a file for their accountant which also contains all the information required including the associated property/entity for the bill.

Contact Gobbill to find out more about paying and tracking investment property expenses https://gobbill.com/contact/  or email [email protected]

Contact Xantias to find out more about financial management https://www.xantias.com.au/contact/  or email afernando@xantias.com.au

#taxtime #eofy #accounting #propertyinvestment #tax

Sources:
1) Sydney Morning Herald, April 2023 – Landlords asked to explain $1.3 billion tax shortfall in new ATO blitz: https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/landlords-asked-to-explain-1-3-billion-tax-shortfall-in-new-ato-blitz-20230414-p5d0fp.html  

2) Australian Financial Review, April 2023 – How ATO crackdown is targeting your investment property:   https://www.afr.com/wealth/personal-finance/how-ato-crackdown-is-targeting-your-investment-property-20230419-p5d1nt

3) The Australian Taxation Office: https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Investments-and-assets/Residential-rental-properties/rental-expenses-to-claim/

4) The Australian Taxation Office: https://www.ato.gov.au/general/interest-and-penalties/penalties/statements-and-positions-that-are-not-reasonably-arguable/

5) The Guardian, April 2023 – Australian Taxation Office to force banks to hand over landlord data in investment property crackdown: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/12/australian-tax-office-force-banks-hand-over-landlord-data-investment-property-crackdown

Photo of Dr. Paul O’Keefe, Practice Owner of Premier Health Partners

Paul is a small business owner who has overseen the growth of his clinic from humble beginnings to what is now a fully multi-disciplinary medical clinic, combining osteopathy with general practice, physiotherapy, myotherapy, clinical psychology, dietetics and remedial/sports massage.

As his practice grew, Paul was spending more time and energy on managing his accounts payable. Instead of closing up for the day and spending time with his family, he would be sorting out admin. Paul heard about Gobbill from one of his patients. Since signing up and using it for a while, here’s what he has to say:

“Gobbill takes the stress out of bill payments for my business. Once the account is setup everything is totally automated. I just email bills to my Gobbill account and I know they’ll be digitised and paid on time and that Gobbill will check for any duplicate or fraudulent bills. Every few weeks I log in and sync bills to Xero, and that’s my whole accounts payable process done as simple as that.

Gobbill has saved me heaps of time and makes bill payment so easy. It’s a part of my business I don’t even think about anymore, you just set and forget it and know everything is being done right. I would recommend Gobbill to other business owners out there looking for a solution to their accounts payable process.”

By automating the accounts payable aspect of his business using Gobbill, Paul has been able to save time and effort on admin which he has estimated to be around $30,000 per annum. It helps him to manage his cashflow with maximum control and minimal effort.

Many business owners using Gobbill have saved up to 70% of their time spent and around $30,000 per annum on managing their accounts. These include medical health clinics, osteo/physio clinics, dental clinics and more.

Find out more about how Gobbill can help your business, contact Tonisha at [email protected] or visit gobbill.com

Direct debit can be a great way to organise your finances, but what are the risks? Make sure that you understand the pros and cons of direct debit before making a commitment to payments that may have hidden strings attached. 

Don’t set and forget 

Keep yourself informed of the direct debits associated with your bank account. Signing up for a trial can seem like a great way to access a free product, but if a biller only accepts direct debit ensure to cancel your subscription before the trial period has ended. Alternatively, if you are a customer who prefers the convenience of a ‘rolling’ policy (a policy that is automatically extended each year), review these payments regularly to confirm that you still require the services. Customers are often hit with charges for products they no longer use without notification from their provider. 

Giving control to a third party can be risky 

As direct debit payments allocate billing control to the biller and give your bank account details to a third party, it is vital that your service provider is a trustworthy organisation. Customers are not required to provide approval for payment, even if a bill is out of line with prior spending.   

Monitor your bill payments 

Using direct debits as a method of bill payment does not mean that customers can avoid monitoring bill amounts. To remove the potential of being overcharged, it is important to be vigilant about what is taken from your account. Monitor withdrawals from your biller and ensure that bill amounts are in line with your spending habits.  

Cancelling can be a process 

Depending on the biller and direct debit system, cancelling a direct debit can be a difficult process. When your direct debit is set up, ensure that you retain authority to end the debit unilaterally. Many banks are unwilling to stop direct debit at a customers request, meaning that a business may take several or more months of payments before the process is stopped. To cancel, customers will often be required to write a letter to the bank and merchant to stop the debits. Before setting up a direct debit read the Terms and Conditions and educate yourself on how to cancel in case you no longer require the service or product. Or alternatively, set up an alternative way to pay. 

Paying bills with a credit card has benefits 

Direct debit payments do not give users the opportunity to access rewards. For those looking to maximise their bill payment benefits, pay bills on a credit card where possible to gain cash and travel rewards. If your biller charges an inconvenience fee for credit card payments, this is the circumstance to look into a debit card or direct debit option. For billers that do not charge extra for the use of a credit card, do the research on what card will be most useful for which bill – do you want to use a card to increase points? Money flow? Choose what credit card gives you the best benefits for your preferences and go.  

Careful of the extra fees 

Utilising direct debit as a payment service can reduce the possibility of being charged late fees and get you pay-on-time discounts. However, if your bank account does not contain enough funds to cover the bill total, you may get charged a fee by both the financial institution and the biller. To manage this issue, it is important for users to either link direct debits to their primary bank account or set reminders to transfer funds before bill due dates.  

An alternative bill payment service like Gobbill can assist in avoiding the potential shortfalls associated with direct debit payments. The new online service issues payment reminders before a bill due date, gives users increased flexibility to pay bills using a credit or debit card, allows users to maintain control over bill payments and automates the bill payment process.

Contact Gobbill to find out more or Sign UP today for FREE

New feature update as of 6 January 2020

We are listening to clients’ feedback and implementing features almost every business day.  You can imagine there would be plenty of small and large changes being made daily.

Here are a few key ones:

• Click through to bill details from the Bill Calendar. Client requested to be able to click through from the calendar to the bill details.

Additional options to override the payment date – A client asked to have more control over when specific Billers are paid, and this new feature is now available on our Premium and Business Plans.

Benefits:

• Set payment time frames for individual billers – ‘pay x business days before due date’ or ‘pay x calendar days after issue date’
• Set and forget, once you select the payment time frame it will automatically apply to any future bills received for that biller
• Better supplier relationships, give suppliers more certainty about exactly when they will be paid, particularly those who manage a tight cash flow

Other recent features prior to 6 January 2020 ———–

Pay ASAP is a preference switch to enable the payment of invoices as soon as possible (ASAP) when a bill arrives in Gobbill. This feature was requested by one of our bookkeeper clients to clear invoices and bills as soon as they are received instead of paying before the due date or paying late.

[BETA] Payroll Sweep and Pay is the ability to clear payroll payments for any client and any Australian bank account through Gobbill. Instead of having to manage multiple Internet Banking login access authorities, logins and passwords, our accounting and bookkeeping partners can access one point trigger payroll approval and to clear payroll payments. Performing it through Gobbill doesn’t affect your clients’ Internet Banking daily limited which can alleviate a big issue on certain days when many payments have to be made on the same day.

[BETA] Bill and Payroll approval flows is the ability for small business users as well as accountants and bookkeepers to trigger approvals for bills/invoices and payroll. Authorizers can simply respond via email to approve without the need for logins or apps.

New dashboard designed for bookkeepers and accountants to manage their clients’ bills/invoices within Gobbill. Working with AAT members and our Partners, we’ve listened and developed a new dashboard to help support the work activities of bookkeepers and accountants. The dashboard helps to collate and group all clients’ accounts payable invoices and manage the timing and cashflow of payments. It is currently being trialed by a beta group.

NDIS dashboard for Plan Managers and households with NDIS self-managed participants. NDIS Plan Managers and Self-Managed Participants are able to see their invoices relating to NDIS all in one area. Their Gobbill account can support the whole bookkeeping practice (portfolio of clients) or whole-of-household with all bills and invoices. We see Gobbill as a whole-of-household solution for bills (including NDIS invoices) making life admin easier for those who are participating in the NDIS. A new dashboard is available to users on the Premium and Business Plans. Just ask [email protected] to activate it for you. There’s no extra charge or fees because it is all part of your existing Plan.

Bank statements can be uploaded directly for account verification and setup. A request from a Partner, you can now link a new bank account in Gobbill and upload bank statements for verification immediately. This is in addition to emailing  your bank statement to your own @gobbill.com email address.

Gobbill can now pay over 40,000 Australian billers and uses robots to fetch bills stored online. Some billers will send a notification that a bill is ready online. Instead of clicking on the link, forward the notification to Gobbill to do it for you. Gobbill currently has robots which will safely and securely fetch from online sources bills/invoices from their associated portals. E.g. City West Water, Sydney Water, Energy Australia, AGL Energy, Xero invoices and more..Robot automation saves you time and also helps to prevent you from clicking on malware or being directed to a fake website.

Gobbill is now able to accept multiple invoice/bill attachments and multiple types of documents in an email. Previously, Gobbill required each invoice to be on its separate email.

Documents awaiting processing by Gobbill due to fraud check or text recognition are displayed as in Gobbill as “Pending documents”.

Bill payment cutoff time is now midnight instead of 6pm. This is the cut off time for bills to be included in the next business day’s payment processing. If  a bill is sent into Gobbill and accepted before midnight, it will be included in the payment processing the next business day or scheduled before the due date depending on the circumstances and preferences.

The disability sector has been shaken up since the introduction and continual roll-out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Australia’s first national scheme to support people with permanent and significant disability. The purpose of the NDIS is to allocate funding to participants so that they have more control and choice over where they direct their spending.

There are around 4.3 million Australians who have a disability. Currently, there are 277,000 NDIS participants and the number is expected to double next year as the scheme rollout continues. The 2019-20 Federal Budget estimated that $23 billion in annual payments will be processed through the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

This has created a myriad of challenges and opportunities – one of which is to assist NDIS participants to manage their claiming and payment of their services related to NDIS funded support activities. Find out more how Gobbill supports self-managed participants and plan managers in managing budgets, invoices and payments.

Read more at  Accounting Technician – The Official Publication Issue July / August 2019 

Finding clever ways to accomplish more in a time-pressed business day can be the difference between getting through that endless list of tasks, or not.

Using Gobbill to automate payments is one way.

Gobbill interviews travel expert Susie Sheldrick who works in tourism about her tips and tricks to make travelling a breeze.

You travel all the time for work. How do you manage being away so often and keeping up with friends at home? Do you just use your mobile to keep in contact?

Social media makes it easier. I have friends around the country as well as the world, so it is super easy to stay in contact on social media, especially if most people are on the one platform. Smart phones help as well. All the info I need is stored or accessible through my phone. I love how it is all cloud based these days as well, so if something happens to my phone I can log onto another device and get what I need.

What’s the best way you make the most of your time while travelling?

Do some research but keep plans flexible. It is good to know what the main things are you want to see and do. But the best experiences are always the ones that happen spontaneously that no amount of research and planning can facilitate.

I like to have an idea of where I am visiting, what the local food is, what attractions I want to see and any local quirks to be aware of like siestas…then ask a local, get exploring and let the adventure unfold.

If I am travelling for work I try to make the most of the contacts I have for work. Most people love talking about their city, favourite foods and places. You get the insider tips and it also helps develop that relationship.

What can’t you travel without?

Ohh. Good question. I am literally writing this on my phone mid flight so I suppose a smart phone these days… but I do remember the days of travelling without one so a better answer would be scarf (which I am wearing because I always find flights chilly!)

Scarfs are too versatile not to bring. I’ve used them in all types of destinations. I always have a light cloth one handy that is a decent size so that it can be used for everything. They can also pack up small and light so they are never an inconvenience. Over the years I have used a scarf as:

• Clothing
• Blanket especially if there is aircon
• Makeshift carry thing
• Towel
• Picnic rug
• Pillow
• Pillow case (regrettable hostel)
• Eye mask
• Head covering for sacred places

I also always pack swimmers. It might be a little optimistic, a swimsuit. You never know when a pair of swimmers will come in handy.

Can you give our users some travel advice?

Don’t underestimate how far a smile and a bit of kindness can go. It transcends language and can get you far in a lot of places.

How do you manage other currencies overseas? Use a travel card?

I use a credit card with no international transaction or conversion fees for most things, then I just withdraw from my regular eftpos card when I need cash. I found currency cards don’t convert the cash at a good enough rate to be worth the hassle, especially if you aren’t using a major currency ie heading to a country that uses a currency that you can’t convert to directly like Norwegian Krones. And avoid currency exhange as much as possible. Most airports have an atm you can withdraw cash from as soon as you land.

It helps to do some research about the money norms in the location you are visiting. Not everywhere is as credit card friendly as Australia, even places that you would expect. I got caught out in Paris one time thinking all cabs accepted cards.

How do you keep up with bills back home while you’re travelling?

Gobbill!

Also a little bit pf planning. Not too many bills come out of the blue or a surprising amount, so it is possible to plan and budget.

Anything else you want to include?

Travel often!

If you’re working to a tight budget, you could save hundreds or even thousands by changing your everyday household service providers. With rising electricity prices, now more than ever it’s time to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible. Is that 10% off an an actual saving or are there hidden costs? Does the price include uneccessary extras? Do the research and you could be rewarded.

Mr. David Baybrooke spoke to Gobbill about how he avoided high electricity prices simply by shopping around. “I switched electricity providers and saved $178 per quarter,” he stated. “I changed from Origin to AGL. A substantial saving there!”

“Shopping around for the best prices is an absolute must I think. On a reduced income, I find price comparison essential!”

Advice for Gobbill users?

“Online research,” says David. “Always looking for great deals! I’ve been looking at Big Switch and I’ve also been helped by a comparison service to find the best rates. Lots of effort put in.”

If you have shopped around and saved Share it with us here: [email protected]

Want to learn more?

Read our blog on how to get the most from your billers here.

What’s new?

Each month our team adds a range of new features to make Gobbill even better! Take a look at our new features below.

• [New] Gobbill will automatically store your digital receipts with bills paid by Gobbill*. You can also forward bill receipts to your account to be matched with the original bills. It’s all in one place. To view the receipt, simply navigate to the ‘Paid Bills’ screen and select the view receipt icon.

*Where possible with billers send email receipts.

Other recent features:

• Individualise Gobbill to suit your needs, with increased flexibility when viewing your bills via the new list function. Try this out by pressing the ‘select view’ button.
• Need to pay a bill earlier than the due date? Now you can by scheduling your payment dates. To do this simply click on the calendar icon at the bottom of your bill and select your preferred method of payment.
• Make tax time easy with Gobbill. To view your bills in a spreadsheet, simply log in, visit the ‘All Bills’ tab and export a csv file.
• See what billers are linked to your payment methods by navigating to the ‘Biller Accounts’ tab and selecting the ‘Show/Hide bills’.
• See all the bills for a certain biller by navigating to the ‘Biller Accounts’ tab and selecting the ‘Show/Hide bills’ tab.
• Set Gobbill up to work for you and change your payment method nickname. To do this simply visit the ‘Payment Methods’ tab, select the ‘Edit Payment Method’ icon and update your payment nickname at the bottom of the pop-up screen.
• Gain valuable insights into your spending habits with the Gobbill Report function. To access this feature click ‘Reports’ from the homepage and select your preferred report layout. Currently two layout options are available – ‘Cash Accounting Tax Preparation’ and ‘Accural Accounting Tax Preparation’. You can also download this data into a Summary Report.
• Paying a bill in segments? Users now have the option to process instalment bills through Gobbill, including council rates and more. To do this forward your segmented bill to Gobbill and each instalment will be paid automatically.

Everyone deserves a free holiday, and with the right rewards credit card you can accumulate enough points to travel for next to nothing. Want to learn how? The first step is to find the right credit card for you. Steve Mickenbecker from Canstar shares his expertise with Gobbill.

Know yourself before you fly into a rewards credit card
Choosing a credit card is one of the earliest financial decisions many young Australian adults will make. Rewards cards are one of the options that should be considered – but they are not right for everyone. Choosing the right credit card is not just about knowing about the cards on offer. It is also about knowing yourself and your financial behaviours.

Do you lose control of your credit card? For some people, no credit card will be right. If you struggle to save because the plastic in your pocket makes spending too easy, stick with a debit card and save before you spend.

Do you leave a debt balance on your card most months? Having passed the “qualify for a credit card test”, now you need to answer a question about your repayment behaviour. If you struggle to repay the full balance every month and end up leaving a debt on your card, you will be paying interest. Typically rewards cards carry higher interest rates, in the order of double that of the lowest rates on the market. The rewards you earn are unlikely to compensate you for the higher interest you are paying. A low rate card is may be a better option.

If you repay in full every month, which type of rewards are for you? If you are a regular payer of the full balance on your credit card then a rewards cards is an option. But you are now faced with the choice of frequent flyer cards or cards that earn you shopping coupons, merchandise or cash back. Frequent flyer rewards take a long time to earn if you spend less than $1,000 per month on your credit card. Shopping coupons and the like can be earned earlier and more frequently, and potentially pay their way as you go rather than waiting years for a flight.

For bigger spenders though, there is something satisfying about paying for flights for an overseas holiday every couple of years or for the odd long weekend at Noosa.

Whether flights or vouchers, don’t pay too high an annual fee
With some cards you pay a fee for the card and a fee for the rewards programme. There are a few free rewards cards, some quite low cost, lots around $400 and a few a lot more than that. What is too much however, depends on how much you spend on your card and the rate at which your card earns rewards.

If your spend is $1,000 per month, the rewards you earn will not cover a high cost card, so you may benefit by looking at the lower end of the scale. However, if you are spending $10,000 per month, a high cost card can be the right choice if it earns high rewards and other benefits.

So now that you understand about you, how do you choose a specific card?

In a nutshell the choice of a specific rewards card comes down to five sets of factors:

1. What type of rewards do I prefer – flights, merchandise, shopping coupons, etc.
2. For my level of spend, what dollar value of rewards do I earn.
3. What is the annual fee for the card
4. What other benefits will I use – travel insurance, concierge, airline lounge entry, etc.
5. What are the underlying credit card conditions

Easy to say fast but a lot to consider when you see the myriad of cards on the market. Canstar compares over 200 credit cards from 64 providers on its website, meaning that the consumer has no shortage of choice ….. but in some ways too much choice.

Acknowledgments to

Steve Mickenbecker, Canstar Group Executive, Financial Services.

www.canstar.com.au