Updates on working from home tax claims, Commercial Rent Update and JobKeeper

ATO Update on WFH (working from home)

From the 1st of March to the 30th of June 2020, if you work from home due to COVID-19 the ATO have introduced an additional calculation for your running expenses. This additional method will be called a ‘shortcut method’ and will allow you a deduction of 80 cents per work hour for all additional running expenses. The three methods for claiming are now:

1. Shortcut method ─ claim a rate of 80 cents per work hour for all additional running expenses between 1st March to 30 June 2020. This can be applied for each person in the house working from home.

2. Fixed rate method ─ claim all of these: - a rate of 52 cents per work hour for heating, cooling, lighting, cleaning and the decline in value of office furniture, - the work-related portion of your actual costs of phone and internet expenses, computer consumables, stationery, and - the work-related portion of the decline in value of a computer, laptop or similar device.

3. Actual cost method ─ claim the actual work-related portion of all your running expenses, which you need to calculate on a reasonable basis.

You must keep a record of the number of hours you have worked from home when using methods one and two. I WILL be asking for these come tax time.

Commercial Rent Update

This afternoon ScoMo held a live press conference again to discuss his progress on commercial rent relief. The National Cabinet has agreed on a mandatory code in order to protect tenants and landlords. This new code will apply to those that are eligible for the JobKeeper program (meaning you have to meet the turnover rules as well as have lost more than 30% of your turnover). The code will ensure that landlords must not be able to terminate a lease on tenants who are not able to pay their regular rent. It will also not allow landlords to draw on any security given by tenants. In turn, a tenant must act in good faith to honour their lease agreement. One of the key wins for tenants of commercial property, is that the landlords will be required to reduce rent in accordance with the decrease in business turnover.   

JobKeeper

There is still a lot of confusion around how the JobKeeper payments will work, who is eligible and how to apply. More will be known in the coming days, but for now I have linked the Treasury Fact Sheet on Frequently Asked Questions which you can access by clicking here. It discusses all things from eligibility, to commencement and payment dates. Some of the major items they have clarified are:

• Turnover for the purposes of calculating eligibility will be defined according to the current calculation for GST purposes. It includes all taxable supplies and all GST free supplies but not input tax supplies.

• The turnover will be based on only Australian based sales

• Payments will be made by the ATO monthly in arrears     

For more information and frequently asked questions, please see the fact sheet by clicking here.

If you have any problems, please do not hesitate to contact me on 03 9762 6652 or subscribe here to get updates as they are announced.