‘Fiddly and complex’ changes a win for accountants

In this year’s federal budget, various levies were adjusted, the HECS threshold was lowered, and there were some “fiddly and complex changes” to the deductions residential property investors can claim for depreciation of plant and travel claims, said H&R Block’s communication director Mark Chapman.

“All of that will add a degree of complexity to tax returns for the next two to three years,” he told Accountants Daily. 

Director at 5ways Group Paul Meissner is also confident that this federal budget has secured a significant volume of compliance work for accountants.

He gave the example from this year’s budget of the expansion of the taxable payments reporting system (TPRS) to two new industries, being cleaning and couriers.

“TPRS requires businesses to record and report information about payments made to contractors to the level expected of information about employees,” he told Accountants Daily. 

“This has created a tax compliance burden for businesses and as a direct flow on, created more work for accountants,” he said.