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i don’t know if this will help but I hope so. I was self employed in NZ for years and I was also receiving a benefit. My benefit payments got almost down to zero one year but I liked to have it there as a safety net just in case the work fell away so I tried to keep my income levels down by having a low taxable income. I did this by buying things for the business with the gross and also claiming as many other work related expenses as I could so then the net was all I needed to declare as income. When I started traveling longer distances I was able to get my income level down to zero or even minus by claiming the mileage as a business expense at the rate provided by the tax department. I found out everything I could claim for and collected receipts for everything I claimed. I did my own accounting and I kept all of my records in a clear file folder with one plastic sleeve for each months receipts. We were audited and I was able to take all of my well kept records in and we had no problems.