CJG Tax, Assurance and Advisory Services

25/03/2026

Hello taxpayers!

The ATO have released their focus areas for the FY26 tax return season. The following are the main issues they are targeting and what this means for your tax return:

1. Deliberate over-claiming of work related deductions - this is a broad ‘catch all’ area which included items such as overstating work related kilometres, claiming travel or accommodation costs which were actually paid by your employer, claiming working from expenses when no work from actually occurred, claiming tools etc without supporting documention, and the list goes on!

2. Crypto currency is again high on the target list - any gains made on disposal of crypto assets (i.e selling your crypto holdings for more than you purchased them for) need to be declared on your tax return and are subject to capital gains tax. The ATO
Has access to all Crypto platforms and can easily ascertain sales made in an attempt to avoid paying CGT.

3. Refraining from declaring income from merchant systems (eg square, Zeller) - the ATO cross matches data from merchant systems to income
Declared in tax returns and any discrepancies will result in amended assessments and in serious cases, the conduct of audits.

4. Lifestyle assets (yachts, expensive cars, luxury houses etc) owned by taxpayers not commensurate with income levels earned will be heavily scrutinised.

5. Paying personal expenses out of company funds - this effectively results in a loan from the company to the taxpayer and must be formally documented in a loan agreement with repayment terms and appropriate interest rates - otherwise the company will be subject to tax at the highest marginal rate (47.5%) as opposed to the company base rate of 27%.

These are just a few of the large target areas, however there are several more. If in doubt, please contact us at CJG services and we can guide you through the maze of compliance burdens this tax season.

25/10/2025

The day is nearly here - 31 October, the due date for lodgement of your individual tax return. After this date, interest and penalties apply. Contact us today if you’d like assistance.

14/07/2025

Seeing quite a large number of people attempting to do their tax on MyGov and being very unhappy with the result - see: https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/tax/no-one-speak-to-me-aussies-cop-brutal-ato-debts-after-completing-tax-returns/news-story/4a7f6e58942565f8d01db150a4537726)

There are a very large number of reasons you may not be getting a return you’re happy with, but if you’re unsure it’s best to engage a registered tax agent to assist.

Some of the common trip ups are:

> HELP debt - as your income increases, so do your compulsory HELP (formally HECS) installments, which are also subject to annual indexation.
> Medicare levy surcharge - those taxpayers earning above a certain threshold with no private health cover pay the Medicare levy surcharge, in addition to the base Medicare levy we all pay.
> ABN holders - not making tax payments throughout the year and footing the bill at year end.
> bracket creep - the term we use when a taxpayer has earned more and therefore moved up a tax bracket, and mistakenly thinking that will entitle them to a larger refund - never assume just because you paid more tax you’ll get a higher refund!

CJG services is happy to help if you’re not happy with what you see on MyGov.

Every year around tax time social media becomes flooded with videos and posts of people complaining about their measly tax return, with many also being hit with debts.

21/06/2025

Hi everyone - tax time is just around the corner. I offer after hours and weekend returns if you’re weeks are simply too busy to fit in seeing a tax agent.

I would love to help you out and can offer very competitive rates. Email me at [email protected] or send me a DM if you’d like some help.

Chris

31/05/2025

Crypto currency!

A question I often receive from Crypto holders is how I can avoid tax on my Crypto gains on successful trades/sales. Short answer - you can't! However, there is a court case in progress which may change this treatment in the future.

Read more on the blog page of our website -

11/05/2025

Hi all 🙂

Quick little tax tip.
I’m sure most people know that kilometres travelled from workplace to workplace (I.e one job site to the other) are claimable as a deduction, either via the logbook method (highly reccomended if you do lots of work kilometres in comparison to total kilometres) or the cents per kilometre method.

Home to work kilometres generally aren’t claimable. However, for any of my lucky tradie mates out there with utes carrying tools, you may in most
circumstances claim home to work kilometres where you carry those tools in your Ute and:
- they are essential for the conduct of your work;
- they are bulky and impracticable to carry in a normal car; and
There is no safe storage on your work site to keep the tools.

If you tick these boxes and use the logbook method for claiming deductions you can end up with a very healthy, perfectly above board motor vehicle expenses deduction. I reccomend the log book method because most tradies use their utes extensively for work purposes and the cents per kilometres method, whilst less cumbersome in terms of record keeping, is likely to result in an inferior deduction in comparison to the log book method.

I hope that helps some of you - and please dm if you have any questions or queries.

Chris 🙂

03/05/2025

Thank you very much everyone for the follows and kind messages so far, definitely feeling the love 🙂 I’ll be posting tips from time to time around income tax, including things to look out for so far as the ATO is concerned (I.e crackdowns, focus areas etc) as well as various pointers to help you get the best return outcome you’re entitled too. But in the meantime, if you have any questions please let me know. You can DM me on here or flick me an email (or enquire through the website).

P.S im currently living on the Gold Coast, However I can easily organise zoom / teams calls for those interested and can complete the return remotely.

Thanks legends 🙂