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Commencing 1 January 2025, vacant residential land tax (VRLT) applies to all Victorian homes unoccupied for more than 6 months in a calendar year, unless an exemption applies
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That includes homes under construction, and those that are under renovation or uninhabitable, for more than 2 years, but does not apply to unimproved land, commercial residential premises, or residential care facilities.
If you pay land tax, it will determine if you are liable for VRLT in 2025. If the tax is payable, you must notify the State Revenue office by 15 January 2025 (or as soon as practicable afterward), via the online notification portal.
Some unoccupied homes may be exempt, such as holiday homes, a property that changed hands; and property that was re-zoned in the prior calendar year.
Even if you believe you are exempt, you still need to notify of vacant tax and then apply for an exemption via the online notification portal.
The rate of tax is based on 1% of capital improved value for the first year, increasing 1% each year.
AcctWeb
Building Australia's future and Budget Priorities
Cost-of-living
- New tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer
- More energy bill relief
- Growing wages
- Cutting the cost of medicines
- Cutting student debt
- A better deal for consumers
- Making it cheaper and easier to see a doctor
- Investing in Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, hospitals and health workforce
- Better healthcare for women
- Expanding access to high‑quality early education
- Investing in schools
- Permanent Free TAFE
- Investing in universities, students and graduates
- A more dynamic and productive economy
- Supporting small businesses
- Building a Future Made in Australia
- Thriving cities, suburbs and regions
- Investing in infrastructure
- Progressing equality, supporting women
- Investing in First Nations communities
- Supporting the wellbeing of all Australians
Budget.gov.au
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Budget Documents
Budget documents | Budget 2025–26
Federal Budget 2025-26 – Papers and Fact Sheets
Portfolio Budget Statements 2025–26 Budget Related Paper
Budget Initiatives and Explanations of Appropriations Specified by Outcomes and Programs by Entity.
Portfolio Budget Statements 2025–26 Budget Related Paper | Department of Social Services
Fact sheets – Federal Budget 2025
Accessible Australia
This Budget provides funding to work in partnership with states and territories to increase accessibility in community spaces across Australia for people with disability.
Accessible Australia | Department of Social Services
Strengthening the National Disability Insurance Scheme
This Budget provides a total of $175.4 million over 4 years from 2025–26 to further safeguard the integrity of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and support people with disability.
Strengthening the National Disability Insurance Scheme | Department of Social Services
Reform of the Information, Linkages and Capacity Building Program
This Budget provides a total of $364.5 million over 5 years from 2024–25 to reform the Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) program. A further $150 million has been committed annually from 2029–30 to provide the supports on an ongoing basis.
Reform of the Information, Linkages and Capacity Building Program | Department of Social Services
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has handed down his fourth federal budget, laying the groundwork for a federal election campaign that could be called within days.
Click on the image to read about the Winners and Losers.
If you are one of the millions of Australian with Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debt, the proposed changes may offer some benefit.
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The most significant changes is a one-off 20% reduction in all HELP debts. This reduction would be automatically applied by the ATO before the annual indexation on 1 June 2025. For example, if you have a HELP balance of $27,600, you could expect a reduction of approximately $5,520 in your debt.
In addition, the minimum income threshold for making compulsory HELP repayments is proposed to increase from $54,435 to $67,000.
Another crucial change will be the indexation rate will be the lower of either the consumer price index (CPI) or the wage price index (WPI). This adjustment will be backdated on all existing HELP, VET student loans, and other similar accounts from 1 June 2023.
AcctWeb
If you are one of the millions of Australians with Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debt, the proposed changes may offer some benefit.
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The most significant changes is a one-off 20% reduction in all HELP debts. This reduction would be automatically applied by the ATO before the annual indexation on 1 June 2025. For example, if you have a HELP balance of $27,600, you could expect a reduction of approximately $5,520 in your debt.
In addition, the minimum income threshold for making compulsory HELP repayments is proposed to increase from $54,435 to $67,000.
Another crucial change will be the indexation rate will be the lower of either the consumer price index (CPI) or the wage price index (WPI). This adjustment will be backdated on all existing HELP, VET student loans, and other similar accounts from 1 June 2023.
AcctWeb
Plan for End-of-Financial-Year (EOFY) early
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Waiting until June to think about EOFY planning can leave you scrambling. If this is you, then make a new financial year resolution to take a more proactive approach in 2025-26. Things to do:
- Regularly review income and expenses: Consistently monitor your financials to identify potential tax liabilities or opportunities.
- Use forecasting tools: Leverage financial forecasting tools or consult with a tax professional to plan for upcoming tax obligations and to avoid last minute surprises.
- Manage cash flow: Plan your cash flow to ensure you have funds available to meet tax obligations without disrupting your business operations.
Maximise your deductions
Ensure you claim all eligible deductions, but they must be supported by detailed records and an understanding of what you can deduct.
Work-related expenses.
Claim all necessary work-related expenses, such as tools, uniforms and home office costs.
Charitable donations.
Donations to registered charities are tax-deductible. Ensure you keep receipts and verify that the charity is registered with the ATO.
Maximise Super Contributions.
- From 1 July 2024, the general concessional contributions cap rose to $30,000 for all individuals regardless of age. It was previously $27,500.
- Many people will also have unused contribution caps from prior years, and these can provide a good opportunity for an improved tax outcome whilst boosting your superannuation at the same time. Use your MyGov account to find out more about your contribution caps or speak to your accountant or superannuation specialist.
Review Bad Debts
Review your debtor's list to determine which won’t be recoverable. Writing off the unrecovered income as a bad debt prior to the end of a financial year will provide a tax deduction for that financial year.
Please note that the debt must be genuinely bad, and not merely doubtful. The decision to write off the debt must be documented before the end of the financial year to claim the deduction.
Instant asset write-offs.
Our tax system offers instant asset write-offs for eligible business purchases. Review the current thresholds and consider investing in assets your business needs.
The limit for instant asset write-off is $20,000 and applies on a per asset basis. For more details click here.
Under this measure, small businesses with an aggregated turnover of less than $10 million will be able to:
- deduct the cost of eligible depreciating assets costing up to $20,000 that are first used or installed ready for use before 30 June 2025.
- deduct the cost of additions for assets costing less than $20,000 (if an immediate deduction for an asset under the simplified depreciation rules in a prior income year where the amount is less than $20,000).
As the $20,000 threshold under the measures applies on a per asset basis, small businesses can instantly write off multiple new assets.
Income deferral and expense prepayment.
Where feasible, defer income or prepay expenses to manage your taxable income for the financial year.
Business restructuring.
Consider whether restructuring your business into a trust or company could improve tax efficiency. Consult a professional to determine if this is right for you.
By implementing these tax planning tips, you can better manage your tax obligations in 2025. Staying proactive, organised and informed will help you minimise tax liabilities and maximise savings.
AcctWeb
The ATO's data matching programs have identified contractors that are incorrectly reporting or omitting contractor income.
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Contractors omitting income remains a major compliance focus for the ATO, with recent data matching revealing that some contractors are still incorrectly reporting or omitting contractor income, the ATO said in a recent update.
“You need to report all your income, including payments made by businesses for your contracting work,” the ATO said.
The ATO reminded contractors that as part of the taxable payments reporting system (TPRS), businesses lodge a taxable payments annual report (TPAR) to report payments made to contractors that provide certain services. These services include building and construction, courier, cleaning, information technology, road freight and security, investigation or surveillance.
The ATO reminded contractors that if they provide any of these services, the businesses that contract them will report these payments to the ATO on their TPAR.
“You need to include this income on your tax return,” it said.
“Through data matching, we are seeing some contractors incorrectly reporting or omitting contractor income.”
The ATO warned contractors that where it suspects a contractor has omitted TPRS income on their tax return, they may contact them or their tax professional to request them to amend the tax return.
“[We may also] contact you or your tax professional via phone call to better understand your circumstances and potentially request you amend your tax return,” it said.
“If you don’t take action, we may conduct a review and audit of your business. Penalties and interest may apply.”
To help contractors report their income correctly, the ATO includes information reported to it about contractor payments that were paid as part of its pre-filling service and its reported transactions service in the ATO online platform.
“These records give you transparency about the data that has been provided to us about your business transactions,” the ATO said.
The ATO gave an example of Mike, a carpenter who operates his business as a sole trader.
Mike subcontracts to multiple builders and completes his tax return himself.
“As he provides building and construction services, the builders must report the payments they made to him during the 2024 income year. They must do this by lodging a TPAR with the ATO by 28 August 2024,” the Tax Office said.
“Mike does not use the pre-filled TPAR amounts for his tax return. This results in Mike not including all his contractor payments in his reported income. On review, the error was identified, and his 2024 assessment was amended to include the missing income. Mike was required to repay the tax shortfall and may be subject to penalties and interest.”
The ATO said in the following year when Mike is completing his tax return, he can review and accept the pre-filled TPAR amounts.
“These will auto fill into his tax return, making it easy to ensure he has included all his contractor payments in his income,” it said.
Miranda Brownlee
26 February 2025
accountantsdaily.com.au
The corporate regulator has revealed online scammers will remain “squarely in the crosshairs”, with 130 investment scams shut down weekly.
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New data released by ASIC highlights the agency’s commitment to protecting the Australian public from online scams, with over 10,000 investment scam websites and online advertisements having been shut down.
The latest enforcement and regulatory update showed 10,240 of the most common sites removed by the corporate regulator included 7,227 fake investment platform scams, 1,564 phishing scam hyperlinks, and 1,257 crypto investment scams.
ASIC said it had commenced court action against HSBC Australia in December, as it was alleged it had failed to adequately protect customers scammed out of millions of dollars.
The action followed reports into anti-scam practices of 15 banks outside the major four and identified “significant room for improvement.”
Sarah Court, deputy chair of ASIC, said since the regulator established its capability in 2023, it had helped shut down an average of 130 investment scam websites each week.
“Scammers are using increasingly sophisticated technology to steal money from hard-working Australians with investment scams that can look shockingly legitimate,” Court said.
“This new data demonstrates that ASIC is making Australia safer by stamping out these scams before they reach Australians. ASIC will continue to protect Australians from scams by removing them before they reach consumers and holding financial institutions accountable for their scam detection and response practices.”
ASIC also outlined in its recent report that in the last six months of 2024, investigations had been increased by 31 per cent to 109 new investigations, commenced 15 new court actions and completed 376 surveillances.
The body was also successful in the majority of its civil and criminal prosecutions, securing $46.6 million in civil penalties and 13 criminal convictions.
Joe Longo, chair of ASIC, said the outcomes that had been achieved by the regulator over the last six months highlighted that its organisational redesign and a refreshed executive team were making a positive impact.
“The changes we have made mean ASIC is able to more efficiently process intelligence, leading to earlier commencement of investigations and surveillance,” Longo said.
“We anticipate the increased number of investigations we have commenced will flow through to significant compliance, enforcement and consumer outcomes in the year ahead.”
Longo added that the 2025 enforcement priorities outlined that banks, insurance companies and superannuation trustees were on notice, as the regulator was concerned by the inconsistencies and complacency it had observed.
The report also detailed action against NAB, QBE, Cbus trustee United Super, as well as a review of bank customers on low incomes.
ASIC’s 2025 enforcement priorities will continue to reflect the increased cost of living pressures faced by consumers and aim to prevent financial harm, Longo said.
“Using our regulatory toolkit, we’ve focused on landmark cases and compliance actions that deliver financial outcomes and protect consumers and investors.”
Imogen Wilson
03 March 2025
accountantsdaily.com.au