tax for 2 years

[baby*toddler*child]

I have just been advised that I need to do tax for 2 years and have NO idea what to do.

Can anyone tell me where to start ? and if you can do a print out of all sales that let you know which ones where sold to overseas customers ?

I have bags of receipts, I used paypal and bank deposit also purchased stock from both local and overseas.

please any help would be greatly apprieciated.

sue

[jensmanchester-australia]

For anyone interested this is just one article about the ATO's data matching capabilities.

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/tax/055042-beware-of-the-ato-s-data-matching-machine.html

[wishuponastarcelebrationsandgifts]

For anyone interested this is just one article about the ATO's data matching capabilities.

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/tax/055042-beware-of-the-ato-s-data-matching-machine.html

Data matching and data mining are extensively used in compliance and always have been. In addition to this they will use other methods to target for investigation. Sometimes they will target a particular industry to ascertain the level of compliance within that industry.

It isn't all about audit. Voluntary compliance through education programs etc is preferred as it more cost effective and also promotes better relationships with their "customers". It is far better for them to educate people to pay the correct amount of tax in the first place. There are of course those that knowingly don't pay their fair share of tax as well so education isn't completely effective.

The ATO may in fact read the boards from time to time just as they would scan the Fin Review etc to get a broad understanding of what is going on within various sectors. I doubt however they would use it is a strategy for targetting.

[phorum_junkie*]

The only people who should worry about the ATO in relation to ebay are those who fulfil the criteria for running a business, in other words they buy things to sell at a profit, and don't declare that income at tax time.

As ebay have an obligation to report all members with a turnover of whatever amount they select for the current year how could it be an effective use of time to monitor the boards as only about 5% of the total membership even know they exist and even fewer actually post.

Taking into account that another percentage will be buyers only, that the majority of sellers probably declare their ebay income and the fact that many of the posters may not even be in Australia (a lot of sellers who ask questions here are located in China & HK) can you explain how you think monitoring the boards could be considered anything other than a futile exercise in time wasting?

[the_great_she_elephant]

Monitoring these boards is all part of the detective work. It's unlikely that anyone here will end up in debtor's prison for making your (mostly) innocuous comments.

Ummmm nobody would end up in a debtors prison (even if such things existed today) for making comments on a chat board - they were for people who had debts they couldn't pay.

[kustomizer99]

Ummmm nobody would end up in a debtors prison (even if such things existed today) for making comments on a chat board - they were for people who had debts they couldn't pay.

YES, you see I was using the technique of SARCASM for effect.

[kustomizer99]

Not sure how staff writing newsletters would be privy to their compliance targetting methodologies these days either.

I mentioned that as an example of how many people and resources they have available to put towards trivial tasks..... I hope I don't have to spell out the implications of that even further.

[davewil1964]

Not to me. And sarcasm needs to be accompanied by at least an emoticon.

And forceful assertions of alleged fact tend to not lend themselves to claims of sarcasm

[davewil1964]

We should have a meetup. We are both in the same town, after all. You have far more sales than me, so I could possibly benefit from advice on sales techniques. I have far less issues with buyers than you, so you could maybe benefit from my insights on that aspect...

[gec2002]

"You have far more sales than me, so I could possibly benefit from advice on sales techniques. I have far less issues with buyers than you, so you could maybe benefit from my insights on that aspect..."

Now lets See

Less sales = Less buyers = Less issues

Why not try for No sales = No Buyers = No Issues (other than financial)

All eBay problems solved

[davewil1964]

It's relative Gec. I'm just looking at 6218 vs 587. Timeframes come into it. But also the fact that I'm probably selling more than kustom atm. At least I have less issues with sales, so that should count for something.

I suspect I might have been left the odd 3 somewhere along the line. I've never had a neg, nor a 1 or 2. Kustom and I share 4.9 across the board, so I reckon we can find some common ground.

Hopefully that quenches your thirst for knowledge. Even for an issue that is none of your business.