brianchu82
Forum Replies Created
-
Update on this.
I wrote a letter to the council and included the parking ticket plus a cheque for $5 to discharge the fine. You can find the letter attached.
Today, I received in the mail my letter, parking ticket and my $5 cheque posted by the council. There was no other correspondence or cover letter from them. They just sent it back to me.
Herein lies the interesting situation.
A friend said that perhaps the council could try to come after me via the court to make me pay. But then I am in NSW while the council is based in Victoria. He also pointed out that a parking infringement is a quasi-criminal matter so a commercial contract may not apply. Therefore I might not be able to use Bills of Exchange Act to address an infringement from the Fines Act.
I would be interested to hear what you guys think. Right now I will let it sit given the council has responded in silence and declined my payment.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi Thomas,
I send a cheque to accompany my A4V and discharging a liability under the Bills of Exchange Act 1909. That way I can see in my statement of account whether it has received my cheque and when it was dishonoured.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi everyone,
I tried setting up an unregistered trust account with BDCU at Bowral and that was rejected. The bank stated the terms in the Trust Deed contained wording it wasn’t comfortable with.
We went a week later to Commonwealth Bank at Bowral and asked to open a bank account for an unregistered trust. The bank provided information about setting up such an account on their website so we know it would be fine. The staff took our details, took a copy of our trust documents and approved the bank account a week later.
We now have an unregistered trust bank account with CBA.
Macquarie Bank also provides this service. You can find a template form online when you search unregistered trust account form.
God bless,
Brian
-
BDCU at Bowral looked at the trust wording and said it felt it was outside the tax jurisdiction and hence rejected our application.
God bless,
Brian
-
I would take the approach of signing a contract with an employer under your business that has an ABN. Then you can have your business with an ABN pay your unregistered trust or foundation to transfer your funds out of the jurisdiction. Your unregistered trust or foundation can issue an invoice (not tax invoice) to charge the business, so your business is incurring am expense to offset the revenues received from doing business with your employer.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi Brandon,
I think you address the promissory note to the Deputy Tax Commissioner in the letter.
With the ATO, it is a little more complicated. I have been using the money order method to discharge more tax liability for my public company (not listed of course).
The ATO continued to send me the monthly statements that show they haven’t accepted my payment and my liability accrued with interest according to them. So I send follow up letters thanking them for the statement of account and putting them on default for refusing my method of payment.
I’ve done this since June 2023.
The ATO has attempted to call me twice the last three weeks which I haven’t picked up. I wrote a letter earlier this week to inform them I don’t take phone calls and asked them to write a letter providing details if they wish to discuss anything.
I’ll continue this process till they do something different. But I think my documentation setup is there.
God bless,
Brian
-
The reason why I raise the issue with Entity B claiming deductions is because many are in the situation where they are employed to do work for an organisation. Many are professionals without the network to set up doing their own thing especially in financial services, health and legal. Therefore they need to find ways to incur legitimate expenses to deduct from their income to access the tax withheld from their employment income.
I believe the majority of the working population in the professional class face this problem.
God bless,
Brian
-
Ok, so if we are redefining what is deemed “income” in the tax department’s eyes and it cannot prove that we have not disclosed information that it can use, then technically it is neither tax evasion nor avoidance.
We are basically playing the word game because the system has used words to take advantage of us.
Would that be a valid perspective to take?
So let’s use an example.
Entity A (sole trader) has provided a service for Entity B (private individual) that helps Entity B becoming more capable of improving their ability to generate an income in the future. Entity B pays in cash. Entity A issues a cash invoice.
Entity B is claiming a work-related expense and has the cash invoice to substantiate.
Entity A as a sole trader does not report the service provided as income because it is compensation of his/her labour.
In the event the tax department audits Entity B to seek further evidence of the work-related expense, Entity B presents the cash invoice. The tax department does not need to go to Entity A to seek confirmation, correct? I am assuming that the amount claimed is not a big amount that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Please tell me what problems or risks arise in this situation.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi Melissa,
Wow… that’s an encouraging outcome! Well done!
So I understand that the ATO had tried to phone you and then sent you a letter requesting more information on your submitted tax returns. You then wrote back claiming that an unsigned letter came from the ATO and you refuse to engage. And within two weeks after, the ATO simply processed your tax returns and gave you the refunds?
Argh, we took the bait from the ATO for my sister in-law then. She picked up the phone, talked a little and hung up. Then they sent her a message and a letter requesting she called back. We called back and the agent requested an audit. You can read the rest of the story in a thread I shared in this same discussion page.
Well, looks like we’ve learnt something here. There are ways through an offer to contact them to give them more information. Don’t take the bait!
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi there,
If you are earning income from your investments via an investment company that is likely to file information on your behalf, then you will need to fill out the supplemental form.
If you are managing your own shares and all that, my experience is that they are less likely to audit capital gains. This is the first financial year where I did not disclose my capital gains from share investing, only dividend income. I believe that capital gains from our investments do not classify as income under their definitions. It is a reward of our labour and risk-bearing in other assets.
I was able to get my full tax refund back after a two month turnaround period.
In the past, I did declare my capital gains. I may have made some calculation errors since I make around one hundred trades a year. I would have to apportion my initial cost of my share sales, plus capital gains discount and I don’t think it is possible to do it 100% correctly.
I’ve only ever had the ATO audit my dividend income and make corrections, never on capital gains.
My guess is that the ATO tends to flag the easier items such as work-related expenses, dividend income, etc.
But if you do set up an unregistered trust, then it is legally outside of their jurisdiction. I plan to do that soon.
Hope this helps.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi Ryan,
The average turnaround is between 2 weeks to 8 weeks from my experience for the most recent financial year.
God bless,
Brian
-
Here’s my draft letter responding to the ATO seeking to penalise my sister in-law for claiming her sustenance under Other Work Related Expenses.
Any suggestions and feedback welcome.
Thank you.
God bless,
Brian
-
This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by brianchu82.
-
This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
-
That’s a good point. I guess for her sake, she can just go through the audit.
-
Hi Michael,
You’re in the same situation as my sister in-law who was contacted by the ATO for an audit in November 2023 for her 2022-23 tax returns. She took a phone call and called back and they said she is requested for the audit.
She was a full time employee and we used the method as suggested by Mark. Out of 7 people I knew who did that in the 2022-23 financial year, only she was flagged.
The ATO rejected her claim that she was a living woman and penalised her for 50% of her claims, amounting to $3,500 additional fines.
She decided to pay it.
Then last December, the ATO sent her a letter to follow up on the case seeking an interview to understand why she did that. We wrote back declining the invitation. In late February, the ATO wrote her a letter telling her that concluded the investigation and gave her a warning recognising she had paid the penalty.
Two days ago, she received a letter requesting an audit for the 2023-24 year as she claimed deductions the the ATO claimed was unusually high for her occupation. I’m going to review the contents of the letter.
This time, she had already received her notice of assessment so we thought it was settled.
We will write back this time asking them to provide cause and state that we are going to consider pursuing it with the Ombudsman for harassment that they are requesting another audit.
It’s clear the government is cash strapped. Down with the ATO and those who work within.
God bless,
Brian
-
Thanks. I think I’ve downloaded this file from an earlier post. Looking for people to share their experience too as some things need trying out. But yes, this was useful for me to get started.
God bless,
Brian
-
We are writing to decline the interview as she has paid the penalty while not agreeing with the ATO claiming she had made recklessly false and misleading statements.
-
The cheque I attached to the payment slip is linked to my bank account. I refashioned the Payment Slip into a money order as Mark instructed and created a unique reference number for this money order. The amount in this money order is the amount of the liability incurred for the quarter for my net GST. I made the payment to David Allen, Deputy Commissioner of Taxation. The cheque is for the amount which I have accepted for value in the Statement of Account.
God bless,
Brian
-
I think you are referring to Section 47(2) and 48 about what happens if they refuse a legitimate payment to discharge a liability.
What binds the contract is when you accept their corporate seal as their signature, then you provide your amended terms written by hand and with numbers in word format, sign it, include “non negotiable” etc. and then affix a 5c stamp with your signature across it.
-
Hi Thomas,
Interesting, I’ve never had them contact me to talk about what I have done. They just simply sent me the monthly Statement of Account accruing for interest. No other letters.
Let us know what the ATO means by “complex advice” when you talk with the ATO. Sounds like an interesting development. Good luck with it.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi Shanksy,
I tried to get an amendment to my tax return for 2020-21 and the ATO said it is beyond the two years and refused to amend it. You may need an accountant to lodge it for you with a good reason why you are going beyond the two years.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi Thomas,
Expect them to just send you templated Statement of Account as if you didn’t pay your tax liability. Every so often they will send you a notice stating you haven’t paid your debt and they remind you to do so or else they will take stronger action to recover it.
They never will go out of script to warn you that you cannot do what you have done discharging your liability. It is like a staring contest. Their silence is their weakness and they hope they can drown you by accruing your liability with interest until your entity becomes technically insolvent. That is what I suspect they are playing because this is what I’m going through now.
God bless,
Brian
-
Please keep me informed.
Let’s hope our correspondence is on this site and not in the same jail cell. I’ll take the lower bunk.
And I hope you’re not a snorer? LOL
God bless,
Brian
-
I think what that probably meant was someone tipped off or the ATO decided to delve and found the information. Then Chris Ellison got cold feet and decided to make a deal with the ATO to decrease the penalty by 80% in return for Chris to declare those revenues and pay back the taxes.
So in his case where he used different vehicles to not need to report his revenues, how may that apply to those who got unregistered trusts, invoice their public entities and send the funds to the trusts and thereby have a tax deductible expense without the reciprocal declarable “income”.
Simply trying to poke holes and see how we can mend them or make them holeproof.
God bless,
Brian
-
I use my own BRIAN CHU entity to send them the bills of exchange on behalf of my corporate entity to discharge that tax liability, as I am a principal creditor of that entity as a director.
I received periodic statement of account with interest accrued on the tax liability. Every so often the ATO sends me a notice warning me the entity’s tax liabilities are not paid and that I should pay or else the ATO will take stronger legal action to recover it. I always respond and they haven’t done anything.
So it seems like your friend, you and I have done similar regarding our companies.
I have recently set up an unregistered trust and will commence invoicing my corporate entity for services fees rendered to the directors, who are the trustees of the unregistered trust. Hopefully that will help offset the tax liabilities accrued by my corporate entity from their unfair change of the legislation making us accrue PAYE from 2022 for profits earned in 2021, which they estimate would be the case for 2022.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi Katie,
I went down this route and the ATO sent my wife and I a templated letter stating that we are not exempt from paying taxes as the ATO is a community asset.
I prefer instead to set up an ABN to provide business to others and that allows me to claim work from home expenses, utility bills, car expenses, travel expenses and other expenses necessary to run a business. This way, I have more threshold to claim deductions for my tax return. My friends who have done similar have thus far succeeded in receiving a bigger refund.
God bless,
Brian
-
So far I got two years of paying almost no taxes because I had sufficient deductions to offset my income. I also successfully recovered more refunds from the 2021-22 financial year via an amendment to my taxes to include work from home expenses.
Let’s hope this prevails in the coming years.
As for my company, the ATO continues to accrue my liabilities with interest despite me putting them on default for sending me notices that imply they refused my bills of exchange settlements. They haven’t written anything else to challenge the validity of my process. I have the documentation against them though and they have assented.
God bless,
Brian
-
What situation are you in with them? Did they request an audit or write a letter penalising you for your claims?
God bless,
Brian
-
Yes, I listened to the module and will purchase the document pack should the time necessitate action.
-
Yes, I wrote three times in our initial exchange of me sending the amended statements of account last year. Then I put them under default judgement. Every subsequent statement they sent and where I sent my quarterly BAS, I would refer back to the original default judgement. I also reminded them of their repeated rejection of my attempts to discharge my liabilities.
Got a trail of documents.
-
So the key is that I just have to push the point that I amended the Statement of Accounts to my terms, sent the bills of exchange to discharge the liabilities, which the ATO has not returned or stated their protest.
Technically the ATO didn’t attempt to contest this but kept pushing with accruing interest and tacitly rejecting my payments.
I think the ATO is trying to drown my company by compounding the liability with interest. But my assets exceed the liabilities by 10+ fold.
-
Statutory declaration on my signature.
I’ve detailed what I did in the above post.
-
They kept in their possession all my mail. So the postage stamps and the cheques they dishonoured.
That said, the business tax liability is rising to almost $70k. It is accruing interest in their books which is a little concerning.
Anyone went down this path like me and dealt successfully to having the ATO reduce your liability without making cash payment that they accept?
God bless,
Brian
-
Yeah the ATO has gone uncomfortably quiet when I write to follow up on why they haven’t responded to me with my BOE payments. I gave them a chance to prove me wrong on interpreting the Acts. That news.com.au reporter would be very uncomfortable if I share that with him. It would make him blush, the slimy little worm.
-
I’m tempted to write to that journalist and rap him over his misleading reporting. But I thought perhaps it’s easier to just use what we know and stay under the surface. What we do isn’t what we want to attract attention, right?
-
Hi there,
My sis in-law only has a small liability of a few hundred dollars owing because of the penalty that the ATO has imposed on her. I don’t know if she just discharged it and taken the path of least resistance. We have set up an ABN for her this year and kept receipts so hopefully this will give her more leeway to claim work-related expenses.
God bless,
Brian
-
I don’t think the ATO is letting go. I am not sure if my sis-in-law is paying the penalty to zero her account.
However, I have drafted a letter for her to try to claim her dwelling cost as a tax deduction instead. It’s been around two months since she sent it. Haven’t heard back from them. From my experience doing this, it took three months to get the refund back. But then I live in a rented dwelling while my sis-in-law lives in a house that is already paid off. Not sure if the ATO will allow the imputed cost of a residence to be refunded back.
God bless,
Brian
-
Fascinating!
So if I can ask, the reason for your tax liability ballooning to $74,000 from the original $6,000 tax debt was because the ATO charged interest on what they claimed to be your unpaid taxes as they did not recognise you discharging your liability using the different methods under the BOE Act 1909?
In the course of the debt bill ballooning, how long did it take for the amount to grow to $74,000?
And did they continually send letters to you threaten to reclaim your property to pay for your debt?
I’m interested to hear more because I have a registered corporate entity that the ATO is claiming has unpaid debt despite me sending them a money order for every BAS quarter to discharge the debt that is accrued from my quarterly submissions.
The assets in the company are more than sufficient to cover the liability they claim I owe so I am not insolvent by any stretch of the imagination.
I have received letters threatening to reclaim my property if I don’t pay. I have responded every such demands for payment by referring the the BOE Act 1909 Sections 47(2) and 48 and putting them on default judgment for refusing a legitimate payment and demanding further payment.
I’ll see how far this goes but your experience intrigues me.
Please provide more details if you can. It will help many who might be in a similar situation.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi Shannon,
Normally, your tax returns include the total income, expenses and deductions made for the year. It does not have to be equal to the sum of all your amounts from the BAS during the year. This is because you include various accounting adjustments during the year that may come up at the end of the financial year, which you do not have time to calculate as you submitted your BAS for the June quarter.
Usually an accountant deals with this. But if you have a simple business, then your annual tax returns figures should be quite similar to the sum of the figures submitted in your quarterly BAS.
All the best with this.
God bless,
Brian
-
Yes that’s the address. I sent it to whichever address the letter came from.
-
I’ve seen more than one version then. Either way, I will only correspond in writing and have them write to state their business to me before responding.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi Morag,
I have read that before actually. Good going by Melissa.
God bless,
Brian
-
Hi Melissa,
It is much better to get a cheque.
When my sister in-law posted her tax return form, she didn’t put her mobile phone. But because she has a my.gov account, they have her mobile number. That’s why they could contact her.
As for my wife and I, we had posted our forms without our phone or bank account details. Like my sister in-law, we have our details on my.gov so the refunds came into our bank accounts.
But I am very happy that you had a positive outcome too. It is now running the gauntlet with getting a tax refund using the sustenance as work expenses method. Have to find other ways to get around it and to have friends with an ABN handy to issue receipts if anyone gets an audit from them.
God bless,
Brian
-
Yeah, that was useful. Thank you.
-
Thank you.
Just let you all know that we are merely trying uncharted waters to set up at least a stalemate against the ATO. I doubt the ATO will remit the funds to my sister in-law because of this.
We are building a documentation arsenal so should one day the ATO is defanged of its powers or there are common law courts set up by the people, we can launch the counter assault using what we have set up.
God bless,
Brian
-
You get the manual when you buy the premium starter pack.
God bless,
Brian
-
They’re probably trying to lay out some bait to try to stop people using the living man and woman argument to reduce taxes.
Government coffers are low I reckon. They’re digging hard.
I’m a bit stressed about what they can do but I reckon we just have to keep each other informed to build the right legal documentation.
God bless,
Brian
-
I think it is a fine line to tread. There are some judges and magistrates who are on board this or not against this movement. However, they are few and far between.
There is a lot to learn and lots of roadblocks along the way. I believe that there is a lot of luck involved in terms of who you encounter on the other side when you are going about with these methods.
I see a number of smug commenters who think we are selfish and deserve the full weight of law thrown at us. These are probably the same people who masked up, took the shots and stooped to every whim of their overlords. I look forward to seeing some of them reap the fruits of this attitude when the system they trust fails them to the fullest.
God bless,
Brian
-
Well.. in the eyes of the unwashed and uneducated, we’re part of that cult because we aren’t obedient sheeple. They will lump us in with the sovereign citizen movement just like they created QAnon to mock those who understand what’s happening.
It’s all about creating a straw man to beat and titillating their simple minds. They’re smug in their oppression and ignorance, all of which end up being self-induced because there is a choice and they decided which to take.
-
It worked for my wife and I too. We are feeling a bit unhappy that my sister in-law flagged the audit. It feels like we ripped her off a bit as she is the only one among us and my friends who tried this that didn’t get through.
I believe it is really running the gauntlet at this stage.
Everyone who signed up to this recently please note, it is not a sure thing. It is not a scam but there are risks.
We are fighting a system that is rigged against us and success is not a rule.
God bless,
Brian
-
My sister in-law got the same. She responded with a letter asking for further particulars after she spoke with the ATO agent about the audit. The ATO agent responded to that letter by zero-ing all her deductions and slapping her with a 50% penalty.
The problem is that the ATO auditing you when you are a PAYG employee is that they hold your cash and dangle in front of you as a carrot. Then they break their own rules and cite their own rules as to why they are legitimate.
Mark has an updated Q&A in July 2022 about minimising taxes. He says that what is happening to my sister in-law is now more common, 30% of the people trying to minimise taxes by claiming sustenance under Other Work Expenses succeed without questions asked. The others will have to simply set up documents to hold back on any penalties the ATO imposes for “reckless behaviour”.
The ATO is disgusting. I hope for poetic justice to hit the agents who work there for a longer time as they are wilfully participating in this. From what Mark says, the turnover is big there, probably because those with a good conscience won’t remain there.
God bless,
Brian
