Private health insurance statements now optional
Taxpayers with private health insurance should be aware that insurance providers are no longer required to provide statements to their members.
Taxpayers lodging their tax returns using a registered tax agent should have their health insurance details ‘pre-filled’ into their return (but they will need to contact their health insurer if they cannot get this information for some reason).
FBT and taxi travel
Taxi travel by an employee is an exempt benefit for FBT purposes if the travel is a single trip beginning or ending at the employee’s place of work (or if it is a result of sickness or injury in certain circumstances).
However, the ATO is reminding taxpayers that this exemption is limited to travel undertaken in a vehicle that is licensed to operate as a taxi by the relevant State or Territory, and does not extend to travel undertaken in a ride-sourcing vehicle or other vehicle for hire that do not hold such a licence.
ATO Data Matching Program: HELP, VSL and/or TSL debts
The ATO is conducting a data matching program for the 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years to identify individuals with an existing Higher Education Loan Program (‘HELP’), Vocational Education and Training Student Loan (‘VSL’) and/or Trade Support Loans (‘TSL’) debt who may not be meeting their registration, lodgment and/or payment obligations.
This data collection is expected to involve approximately 3 million individuals each year.
ATO rates and thresholds
Editor: The ATO has updated a number of rates and thresholds on their website, including the following.
Division 7A – benchmark interest rate
The Division 7A benchmark interest rate for the 2020 income year is 5.37% (up from the rate for the 2019 income year of 5.20%).
Car cost limit for depreciation
The maximum value taxpayers can use for calculating depreciation of cars is the car limit in the year in which they first used or leased the car.
In the 2019/20 income year, the car limit is $57,581, unchanged from the 2018/19 year.
Capital improvement threshold
The improvement threshold for the 2019/20 income year is $153,093, up from $150,386 for the 2018/19 income year.
SMSF LRBA interest rates
An interest rate of 5.94% charged by an SMSF in the 2020 income year under a limited recourse borrowing arrangement (‘LRBA’) to acquire real property would be consistent with the ATO’s safe harbour terms (or 7.94% for listed shares or units).